A carved boxwood prisoner of war battleship snuff box

A carved boxwood prisoner of war battleship snuff box. This small snuff box is carved in the form of a 112-gun ship of the line with a removable quarterdeck. The bow is naively carved with a female figurehead. The captain’s cabin in the stern has two large arched windows and ornate wooden struts with carved bands. It stands on two small splayed legs. French, circa 1800.

As England won naval victory after naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars, the ever increasing number of prisoners became a problem. Many were kept in floating hulks anchored in the harbours of Portsmouth, Plymouth and the Medway with 900 men to a ship. Others went to prisons at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire and Dartmoor. One of the most striking things about certain of these prisoners was that, though conditions were very rough, they managed to make beautiful objects from bone, wood and straw, which they were allowed to sell. They made playing cards, dominoes and dice, snuff boxes, trinket boxes, houses, miniature guns and gun carriages, models of the guillotine and the Spinning Jenny with moving figures. Perhaps the prisoners’ finest achievements were their beautiful model ships with accurate rigging, decks and guns. (See the following pages for a superb example of such a ship.)