9cm (3.5in) x 6cm (2.4in) x 3.4 cm (1.7in)
Silver. A William IV snuff box of rectangular form, with rounded corners, reeded sides and base, the hinged lid with a foliate scroll thumb piece, engine-turned decoration and with a central escutcheon engraved with the stern view of the San Josef; the gilded interior inscribed ‘Presented by / Lieut. Col. Adair. C.B / and the Officers of the / Royal Marines / Embarked Jany 1835 / To the Ward Room Mess / H.M.S. San Josef / and succeeding Flag ships.’ Maker’s mark of Nathaniel Mills, Birmingham. Hallmarked 1834.
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HMS San Josef was a 114-gun first-rate ship of the Royal Navy. She was built in Ferrol, Galacia, for the Spanish Navy in 1782-83. Fourteen years later she was captured at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797.
General Thomas Benjamin Adair CB, KTS, RM (1780-1849) was the younger son of Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Adair RM (1738-1794), and younger brother of Captain Charles Adair RM who was killed on Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Thomas Benjamin served in HMS Alexander at the Battle of the Nile (1798).