[i]Concert Room and orchestra anecdotes Vol 1 by Thomas Busby. London 1825At Brighton July 7th 1824, the gentlemen of His Majesty’s private band presented their leader, Mr Kramer, with an elegant gold snuff box value 80 guineas, as a mark of sense which they entertained of his professional talents and private worth. The box was manufactured by Rundell and Bridge of London, and the workmanship is exquisitely beautiful. On the lid which is chased, there was a representation of Mount Olympus with the Temple of the Muses and Apollo with his lyre. The initials ‘C K’ encircled by a radiance surmounted the Temple. The figure of Apollo is surrounded by wind instruments, among which is seen the serpent, an instrument that has been greatly improved by Mr Kramer. Within the lid is the following inscription:-
AD 1824
Presented by the private band of his Majesty King George IV to C Kramer esq, (their conductor),as a token of their respect for his professional excellence and a tribute of their gratitude for his friendly esteem
“Arte clarus, benignate clarior”
Sadly this wonderful artefact has been subsequently lost, but an idea of what it looked like can be got from surviving gold snuff boxes by the same Rundell, Bridge and Rundell who were the royal goldsmiths. The sum of 80 guineas quoted by Busby would be around £8,500 in today’s money. It is a mystery how the band afforded such an item, considering some of the members were quite poor. It is possible that someone else in the Royal Household contributed to this gift.
Mary Ann Kramer specified in her will that the box should go to her godson and nephew, Thomas Leonard Shuckard, younger son of Leonard Shuckard, proprietor of the Brighton Old Ship Hotel. Thomas Leonard, having spent his early years at the Old Ship, at age 14 was articled to William Turner, solicitor of London and subsequently worked as articled clerk to Palmer, France and Palmer of 24, Bedford Row, London. Thomas Leonard pursued a successful career as a solicitor, and he and his wife, Anne Parsons, raised seven children and settled at 2 Ravenscourt Terrace, Hammersmith. However, disaster struck the family in 1871 when two young men: William Weeks, a potman at The Two Blue Posts, Clerkenwell, and Henry Cripps, an errand boy, both testified against Shuckard on charges of sexual assault. After he had been found guilty, Thomas Leonard Shuckard committed suicide in a toilet on Aldersgate Station, while released on bail. The graphic details were widely reported in the press.[ii]Daily News 14 September 1870. At the trial, his brother in law, Ambrose Parsons, also a solicitor, testified that Thomas Leonard, a man of ‘high moral character’ had enjoyed ‘talking to’ boys of a lower class, as he had himself as a boy been ‘befriended’ by gentlemen of a superior class. Probably the licentiousness of life in Regency Brighton, had meant that the Old Ship Hotel, had not been a safe place for a child to be. Whatever the truth of the matter, Leonard Thomas’ death devastated the family. A month later, his son, Leonard Thomas Shuckard, was committed to the Bethlem Hospital, Southwark, and died there a year later, age 22. It was said that the death of his father had ‘turned his mind’. The cause of death was given as ‘exhaustion after acute mania’ He had imagined himself to be a wealthy man, and ordered many luxury goods that he was unable to pay for. Thomas Leonard’s daughter Alice died in a mental hospital in 1882 aged 40.
By this point in the research, I had lost interest in the fate of Christian Kramer’s snuff box. Such a sad family story reminded me that Brighton Lives is about people and not about ‘stuff’.
