18th Century Dutch Pieter Holm Zee-Meeter Brass & Copper Navigator's Tobacco Box

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18th-Century Dutch Pieter Holm Zee-Meeter Brass & Copper Navigator's Tobacco Box

Large 18th-century Dutch brass and copper seaman’s tobacco box, … Read more 18th-Century Dutch Pieter Holm Zee-Meeter Brass & Copper Navigator's Tobacco Box

Large 18th-century Dutch brass and copper seaman’s tobacco box, also known as a “Dutchman’s Log” or "Zee-Meeter," associated with the nautical designs of Pieter Holm. Holm was a Swedish-born sailor and navigator who settled in Amsterdam and established the navigation school Regt door Zee, meaning “straight through the sea.” These boxes combined everyday tobacco storage with practical navigational reference tables for sailors. Similar examples are held in museum collections and are associated with Holm’s Amsterdam school and maritime-instrument trade.

The brass lid is finely engraved with a perpetual calendar table, flanked by two portrait medallions. One represents Julius Caesar, with the date 45 BC, referring to the Julian calendar; the other represents Pope Gregory XIII, with the date 1482, referring to the Gregorian calendar reform. The calendar was used to determine weekday and lunar information for a given date.

The copper body is engraved along the side with “Regt Door Zee,” the name of Holm’s Amsterdam navigation school. The underside or interior lid typically carries a speed-calculation table used by sailors to estimate a ship’s speed by timing an object passing between fixed deck marks.

The box is of elongated rounded rectangular form with a hinged lid, brass framing, copper sides, and dense hand engraving throughout. Measuring 7" W x 2" D x 1.75" H, it is both a tobacco container and a compact maritime calculating instrument. A rare and highly collectible example of 18th-century Dutch nautical material culture, combining folk engraving, scientific utility, and seafaring history. See less