Silver and gutta-percha box, the hinged lid decorated with a - Lot 210

Silver and gutta-percha box, the hinged lid decorated with a miniature marine framed by engraved inscriptions "Nouveau brise lame flottant / Inventé par le Capne J. N. Tayler / Importé en France par S.C. Lakeman", the interior in vermeil. Mid-19th century. Gross weight: 150 g. H: 2.6 cm; W: 10.2 cm; D: 5.9 cm. (numerous accidents and missing parts) The floating breakwater invented by Captain (later Admiral) Tayler was presented as early as 1845 in the Annales maritimes et coloniales, then at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. This ingenious project aimed to create ports of refuge using anchored floating modules, capable of protecting ships without masonry work. Entrepreneur and adventurer Stephen Lakeman introduced the system to France, testing it in Marseille and La Ciotat in the 1850s.