Victorian Silver Crimean War Holy Alliance Commemorative Silver Card Case

A rare Victorian engraved silver Card Case, commemorating the Crimean War Alliance of Britain and France against Russia in 1854. The shaped rectangular case with hinged lid, the obverse cartouche depicting a Grenadier Guardsman greeting a French Rifleman, with flags, a drum and cannon in the background, surrounded by foliate scrollwork, the reverse cartouche engraved with a bouquet of Roses and Thistles.

By Yapp & Woodward, Birmingham, 1854.

The Anglo-French coalition that fought Russia was an unlikely combination. The partners had been at war for close on five hundred years. After 1815 relations had often been hostile, and yet they managed to concert policy and strategy to invade and defeat Russia - the continental superpower of the age. But the clash of strategic cultures, incompatible war aims and continuing long-term rivalries made the coalition fragile. Long before the war ended both anticipated it would soon fail.

The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between the Russian Empire and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia-Piedmont.

Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire (the "Eastern Question"), the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Sold - £600.00