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Silver Box Dated Christmas 1914

J

Jules65

master brummie
I have come across a silver box engraved Christmas 1914 the bottom. It is quite hard to read the engraving at the top. In the middle is a ladies head encircled by what looks like laurel leaves. Each side of the head is the letter M. In the four corners of the box starting top left, is the word Belguim, top right Japan, bottom right Monte Negro, bottom left Servia. In the middle left France and in the middle right Russia.

I have a feeling that is was presented to my grandfather during WW1 and may have contained chocolate. This is a really hazy memory though so I could be totally wrong.

Has anyone any idea what this tin was and why it was produced?
 
Jules sorry no idea but maybe if you put a photo on of it someone may be able to help. Anyway it sounds lovely. JEAN.
 
Jules, our soldiers were presented with box's and quite often they held cigarettes. I have seen brass ones with King George's head in the centre.
 
The box has Princess Mary`s image on it, the box usually contained cigarettes, the box was made of tin & was bronze colour, is it hallmarked silver?. Len.
 
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1914, Princess Mary set up a special fund for servicemen and nurses who were stationed overseas during the first Christmas of the war. Each received a Princess Mary’s Gift Box on Christmas Day. Embossed on the brass tin lid, is an image of Princess Mary and her monogram of ‘M’. On each corner are the names of places where troops were based. Each tin’s contentswere varied due to different groups of people which included non-smokers, different religions, troops from India and nurses stationed at the front in France The response was truly overwhelming, and it was decided to spend the money on an embossed brass box, based on a design by Messrs Adshead and Ramsey. The contents varied considerably; officers and men on active service afloat or at the front received a box containing a combination of pipe, lighter, 1 oz of tobacco and twenty cigarettes in distinctive yellow monogrammed wrappers. Non-smokers and boys received a bullet pencil and a packet of sweets instead. Indian troops often got sweets and spices, and nurses were treated to chocolate. Many of these items were despatched separately from the tins themselves, as once the standard issue of tobacco and cigarettes was placed in the tin there was little room for much else apart from the greeting card. Acknowledgement to E/Bay. Len.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies. It is definetely a Princess Mary Box but is silver in colour rather than bronze. I have now attached a photo for you all. Could the bronze colour have worn off? I doubt it would have done so completely. Perhaps silver ones were also used?

View attachment 20581
 
Jules65, My thinking is that the serviceman who got this tin spent a long time buffing the bronzing of the tin with either metal polish or wire wool or both together to make it look silver, untreated tin is silver colour and would have been bronzed to stop it rusting when it was in the wet & muddy trenches of the battlefields. Len.
 
Many different variations of the tin were issued. Most were made of brass so are brass-coloured right through. There are also known examples of boxes that have been silver plated. These were not issued like that but were silvered afterwards and done privately.

An example is shown on this page
 
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