A silver and enamel Vesta Case with a facsimile Great Eastern Railway train ticket, first class return St Pancras to Newmarket, the reverse engraved 'AdeR 1885' for Alfred Charles de Rothschild (1842-1918), London 1884, Mark of Sampson Morden.
In 1832 William Newton in England patented a wax and cotton match with a tip of phosphorus, naming his matches after Vesta, the Roman goddess of fire and the hearth. Small containers to house these friction matches were introduced in the early 1830s to guard against accidental combustion, and they became known as ‘vesta cases’. Pocket vesta cases became popular, many taking whimsical forms.
Notable English makers of vesta cases included the silversmiths Mappin & Webb, Sampson Mordan, and Asprey & Co. Sampson Mordan (1790-1843) was a British silversmith and a co-inventor of the first patented mechanical pencil. S. Mordan & Co. continued to make silverware and brass items until 1941, when their factory was destroyed in the London Blitz.
Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918)
Alfred was the fourth of five children of Lionel and Charlotte de Rothschild. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied Mathematics and formed a lasting friendship with the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), both men sharing a love of the turf. Aged 21, Alfred became a Partner at N M Rothschild & Sons at New Court, briefly serving as Senior Partner from 1915-1918.
