Mallams
Lot 60A
An early Victorian silver-gilt snuff box, the hinged top and bowed sides decorated in relief with flowers and foliage, engraved with an Earl's Coronet over initial 'B', dated May 1937. Stanley Baldwin retired as Prime Minister the day after the coronation of King George VI in May 1937. The new monarch, as a gesture of gratitude for his navigation of the abdication crisis thanked Baldwin by making him Knight of the Garter (KG) on 28th May and enobling him as Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, a newly created peerage. This box, engraved with an Earl's Coronet and the initial 'B' was likely presented to Baldwin by the King at this time. By Charles Boyton II, London 1852, 10cm wide, 7oz.This lot is from the estate of Edward Alfred Alexander Baldwin (1938 - 2021). Edward was the grandson of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and the fourth Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Stanley Baldwin was from an extraordinary family: Rudyard Kipling was his first cousin, Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter were both uncles, his mother Louisa was a novelist, and her siblings included the famous Macdonald sisters. Edward Baldwin was committed to rehabilitating his grandfather's reputation and, being an only child, spent much of his life as sole custodian of these family objects.In good condition overall, minor wear and scratches to the underside.
