Nautical instruments

Early 18th century Brass ‘Zeemeter’ – Pieter Holm, Amsterdam

Dutch seaman’s tobacco box of Pieter Holm, also known as the Dutchman’s Log, with a perpetual calendar on the top of the lid and a ship’s speed table on the bottom. In a publication of 1748 Holm claims to have devised this table in 1729. The top of the lid is further adorned with simple vignettes portraying Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII, who respectively in 45 BC and AD 1582 introduced the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. The bottom carries a simple vignette of a person with a globe and a pair of dividerss with the year 1497 who is tentatively identified as Amerigo Vespucci.
On the bottom a short Dutch tekst, Den eeuwigh duerende almanack ( inThe ever-lasting almanac in).
This box is of 1759, see the lid bottom right.

Catalogue: NM.2-36
Date: 1759
HWL case: 3,3x17x4,7 cm (1,3×6,7×1,8 in)
Signed: not signed
Origin: Holland
Condition: the box is in a good condition, with small restaurations on the corners of the lid; the inscrptions became blurred here and there