Silver box with a platinum lid decorated with a scene representing Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his two sons to death, made from a platinum ingot produced by Percival Norton Johnson in 1850; base with Birmingham hallmarks for 1849-50; maker's mark of Yapp & Woodward

Silver box with a platinum lid decorated with a scene representing Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his two sons to death, made from a platinum ingot produced by Percival Norton Johnson in 1850; base with Birmingham hallmarks for silver, 1849-50; maker's mark of Yapp & Woodward

Lent by Johnson Matthey Plc

The history of the box is told in Donald McDonald, A History of Platinum (Johnson Matthey, 1960, pp. 146-7, the box illustrated on p. 146) and Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt, A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals (Johnson Matthey, 1982, p. 216, illustrated). The revised version in the 1982 account is this:

Caption to photograph:

'To celebrate the production of a particularly large ingot of platinum in 1850 Percival Norton Johnson had the lid of a snuff-box made from part of the rolled sheet. The body of the box is in silver bearing the Birmingham hallmark for that year, while the lid carries a relief showing the Roman Consul Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his sons to death for conspiracy. It has now been passed to the Victoria and Albert Museum.'

Text:

'By 1850 the size of platinum ingots has increased considerably and had exceeded the capabilities of the London metal workers to roll them. In that year to celebrate the production of his largest ingot so far [Percival Norton] Johnson took it to Birmingham, in company with his brother-in-law Smith (who had now taken his mother's maiden name of Sellon) to have it rolled. From a piece of the resulting sheet he had made the lid of a snuff-box showing in relief the Roman Consul Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his two sons to death. The snuff box, the body of which is made in silver, is now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.' (p. 216).

In the 1960 edition the box is captioned ' Percival Johnson's snuff box' (p. 146).

The box has been on loan to the V&A since 1975.

LOAN:JOHNSON MATTHEY.1