Overall: 71cm (in) x 64cm (in) x 57cm (in)
Marble top of rectangular form ‘SEVASTOPOL DOCKSS [sic] / 1855’ inset into a mahogany top with rounded corners over frieze drawers and dummy drawers, the whole supported on a leaf carved baluster and four scrolled out swept legs.
The strong and heavily fortified Black Sea port of Sevastopol, on the south-west coast of the Crimea, was the main naval base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. During the Crimean War (1853–56), the capture or destruction of this stronghold became the main military object of the allied British, French and Turkish armies opposing Russia. Sevastopol endured an eleven-month siege before finally capitulating to the enemy in September 1855. In order to prevent the restoration of Sevastopol as a Russian stronghold the British destroyed the dry docks in January 1856 and Fort St Nicholas was destroyed by the French in February 1856.