4.5cm (1.7in) x 9.2cm (3.6in) x 7cm (2.7in)
Silver mounted oak table box made from the ship’s timbers of HMS Victor Emmanuel, the top applied with an silver cartouche inscribed ‘HMS Victor Emmanuel / Hong Kong / 1874-1898’. Unmarked. Attributed to Chinese silversmith Luen Hing of Shanghai, (fl.1875-1930).
HMS Victor Emmanuel served in Hong Kong Harbour as the China Station headquarters ship for the Royal Navy’s senior naval officer and was also the depot ship for sailors on the China Station between 1874 and 1899. She was built in response to the perceived threat from Napoleon III’s France in the 1850s and was launched as HMS Repulse in 1855. She was renamed Victor Emmanuel, in honour of the King of newly unified Italy, after he visited the ship in 1861 as part of the Channel Squadron. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1859, and was recommissioned on in 1873 to serve as a hospital ship during the expedition against the slave-trading Ashanti. She was afterwards assigned to Hong Kong to replace HMS Princess Charlotte as the China Station receiving ship from on 11 December 1874 until in 1899 when she was relieved by HMS Tamar.
