Dutch Copper and Brass Tobacco Box
An Unusual Dutch Copper and Brass Tobacco Box the Lower Lid Engraved with Falconry Scenes Showing Men on Horseback with Birds on their Gloved Fists Another Riding with a Falcon Seizing a Heron and Two People Standing with a Large Falcon Perched on the Man’s Hand
The lid to the top engraved with Hounds Hunting Stags and Hares a Squirrel in a Tree and with a Team of Horses Pulling a Coach
The side to the front engraved with an Amorous Couple in Bed Enclosed in a Garden between a Man and Wife
The back engraved with Numerous Swans on a Lake with a Man Fishing from a Small Boat
Mid 18th Century
Size: b. 3cm high, 18cm wide, 5cm deep - 1¼ ins high, 7 ins wide, 2 ins deep
The lid to the top engraved with Hounds Hunting Stags and Hares a Squirrel in a Tree and with a Team of Horses Pulling a Coach
The side to the front engraved with an Amorous Couple in Bed Enclosed in a Garden between a Man and Wife
The back engraved with Numerous Swans on a Lake with a Man Fishing from a Small Boat
Mid 18th Century
Size: b. 3cm high, 18cm wide, 5cm deep - 1¼ ins high, 7 ins wide, 2 ins deep
Falconry techniques and knowledge have been traded between different cultures throughout history, even those at war with each other. European Knights took falcons with them on the crusades and learned how to hood falcons from their enemy. In the early 12th century Persian falconer Usamah Ibn Muquidh complained that because his hunting land was now next to Frankish territory his falconry expeditions needed extra horses, attendants and weapons. A besieged Richard I sent an envoy to Prince Saladin to request food for his starving falcons. Saladin immediately delivered baskets of his best poultry for the falcons.
Dutch Copper and Brass Tobacco Box
