Silver snuff box, United Kingdom, presented 1850

Silver snuff box, presented to Matthew Whitehill by Mrs David Drysdale, for "his obliging manners and unremitting attention to her welfare" during a cholera outbreak in Greenock, Scotland, 1850, hallmarks suggest that the box was probably made in 1827 by Nathanial Mills of Birmingham.

During the 1800s, Europe was hit by six cholera pandemics century, spreading not just illness and death but also anxiety and alarm. Tens of thousands of people in Britain died, and everyone lived in fear of becoming its next victim. Imagine then being a doctor called to care for a patient with severe diarrhoea, or a sanitary inspector told to check the quality of water supplies or a family friend who felt it was their duty to help out.

The compassion, even heroism, of those who faced such hazards did not go unnoticed. This silver snuff box was presented to a man for his personal assistance during the second cholera pandemic to reach the country in 1848-49. It was presented by Mrs David Drydale, of Greenock, Scotland on the 6th February, 1850 and was dedicated to Mr Matthew Whitehill “as a mark of respect and esteem for his obliging manners and unremitting attention to her welfare during the visitation of Cholera”.

Whether Matthew Whitehill administered treatment to Mrs Drysdale or was more and helpful and reassuring presence is uncertain. Contemporaneous records of the period mention a Matthew Whitehill working in Greenock for Thorne & Curtis, a wine and spirit merchants and coopers. Sadly he died in 1853.