A Charles II sterling silver tobacco box, London 1672 by R.S, possibly Richard Shaw?

Of oval form with a pull off lid. Engraved to the lid with a contemporaneous coat of arms reserved with foliate scroll mantling, surmounted by a helm and with a crest of issuing out of a tower a lion's head. Fully marked to the interior, the lid part-marked with maker mark and lion passant. Maker’s mark R.S in a plain heater shield.

Length – 8.5 cm / 3.3 inches

Weight – 84 grams / 2.7 ozt

Richard Shaw apprenticed to his father Christopher Shaw between 1663-70, a similar RS in a shield shape with double cusped top is recorded on a small box of 1678 (Jackson 1964, p. 137)

The crest is for Hichcoke

The arms of Hiscocks or Hitchcock of Preshute, Wiltshire

This box is illustrated in Culme, J., (2015). British Silver Boxes 1640-1840, The Lion Collection. Suffolk: Antiques Collector’s Club. p.38 fig. 9. “(…) a black stone memorial in the north side of the chancel of the Collegiate Church of St Katherine by the Tower, City of London, which is carved with this combination of arms and crests impaling that of Holford for John Hickox, Citizen of London who died at the age of 41 in November 1706; his wife was Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir William Holbord of Welham. It seems likely, therefore, that, because this John Hickox would have been only about seven years of age when this box was made, its arms are those of a member of his family perhaps his father or uncle.”

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Phillips , London 20 July 2001, lot 204.