A brass cylindrical vesta case (match box) from the 1845 British Northwest Passage Expedition led by Sir John Franklin. The boxes contains three dead matches and a piece of white wool.

The match box was found at the boat site in Erebus Bay by Captain F. L. McClintock's sledge team on 30 May 1859, as part of the search expedition led by McClintock The site had been visited and partially investigated by Lt. William Hobson on 24 May but his report does not list everything he saw or removed. McClintock records ’brass matchbox'. [McClintock, Voyage of the Fox (1859), page 367].

The Vesta match box was displayed at the Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, Case 2, No. 82. 'Brass match-box'. The item is also shown in - 'Stereoscopic slides of the relics of Sir John Franklin's Expedition' photographed by Lieutenant Cheyne RN, at the United Services Museum, Whitehall, No. 5 (top left corner).