Edwardian Silver Barker's Patent Pathfinder Butt Marker Duke of Hamilton & Brandon

A fine Edwardian silver butt marker of rectangular form with a hinged lid to an interlocking knob clasp. The front engraved with initials 'H & B' below a ducal coronet. The reverse with engraved inscription; ‘Douglas from D.G.R. 1901’. The gilt interior with a fan of ten holders with silver numbered place finders. Stamped: Albert Barker, 5 New Bond S London N.W. Pat 22109’ to one interior lid and Barker's Patent Pathfinder No.1123 to the other.

By John Millward Banks, London, 1901.

For the Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton and 10th Duke of Brandon (1862-1940).

Lieutenant Alfred Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, was a Scottish nobleman and sailor. Hamilton was born at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, in 1862, the son of Captain Charles Douglas-Hamilton (1808–1873). His grandfather, Augustus Hamilton, was a son of Charles Powell Hamilton, himself a grandson of James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton. As a young man, Hamilton was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and held the rank of lieutenant. He gained the reputation for being able to dive under the keels of the battleships on which he served, without any equipment, reappearing on the opposite side of the ship to the amazement of his crew mates. In 1888, his fourth cousin, William Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton, persuaded him to leave the navy. By then, he was the heir presumptive of the Duke, who had no son. There was a serious possibility that Alfred Hamilton would provide a good match for the twelfth duke's daughter, Lady Mary, but such hopes were dashed in 1890, when Hamilton was partially paralysed by a rare tropical disease he had caught while overseas on his last tour of duty. Hamilton recovered and succeeded to the dukedom in 1895. He died shortly after his 78th birthday, on 16 March 1940 at the family's property in Dorset, Ferne House.

£1,250.00