The inside lid is engraved:Presented / by the / Royal Trinidad Light Dragoons / to their Colonel / Andrew Johnston / As a token of their esteem and regard. / A.D. 1830.

The Royal Trinidad Light Dragoons were part of the first division of cavalry in the Trinidad Militia Regiments. Andrew Johnston was appointed Major Commanding in June 1825. The Trinidad Guardian reported on 15 January 1830 that a golden snuffbox worth sixty guineas was presented to him when he left Trinidad that year. However, as the London Deputy Wardens mark (date letter) P on this snuffbox was used from May 1830 until for this work, or alternatively the sixty guineas was given to Colonel Johnston for him to commission the work himself once he returned to England in July 1830.

The plaque on the lid portrays the dragoons on parade. The landscape is conceivably intended to represent Port of Spain with the Northern Range beyond; if so, however, there is a considerable element of fantasy for the dragoons to be parading miraculously in the Gulf of Paria. It has been suggested that this composition could be based on a drawing or even a wax model by John Eckstein (?–1837). Eckstein was the son and namesake of John Eckstein (1735–1818), a sculptor and wax modeller. Eckstein junior exhibited wax portraits at the Royal Academy in 1787 and again from 1796 to 1802. In 1803 he accompanied Samuel Hood to Diamond Rock, near Martinique, where he painted topographical views that were subsequently published as a series of fifteen prints. Thereafter he lived in Barbados and Trinidad where he was involved with the local militia. In Ecksteins obituary, published in the Port of Spain Gazette, it was observed of his work that it is impossible for anyone acquainted with the fine arts to look at these without perceiving that they evince considerable ability, and most glaring defects. It was perhaps due to such judgements that Eckstein found he was unable to support himself as an artist and so supplemented his income as an interpreter at Trinidads Criminal Courts. John Jones, whether working from a design by Eckstein or not, executed the composition in a distinctly robust style, quite unlike the more exacting work of Strachan or Northam.

Although the makers mark I.J on this box was not registered at Goldsmiths Hall, it can be attributed with some certainty to John Jones, perhaps for use on gold rather than silver boxes.

He entered his first mark as a plateworker on 4 August 1824, giving his address as 1 Dean Street, Fetter Lane, London, from where he had advertised on 7 July:WANTED a good Gold and Silver SNUFF-BOX MAKER. By 13 July 1827 Jones had moved to 20 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell (now Britton Street, EC1), and in November 1830 the following advertisement was published:TO SEAL ENGRAVERS.–WANTED, in one of the oldest established houses at the West end of the Town, a superior STONE ENGRAVER. – Apply to Messrs. J. and W. Jones, 20, Red Lion street, Clerkenwell.In 1840 William Jones, jeweller, of 20 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, was the assignee of Richard Townley, an insolvent, late of 93 Oxford Street, jeweller and hair-worker.On 9 March 1842 the partnership was dissolved between John Jones and William Jones of Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, working jewellers.

minimize...