Lid from butter dish used on board the paddle steamer 'Precursor'.

One of a pair of Sheffield plate butter dish lids, each surmounted by a hallmarked silver model of a sitting cow. The fluted lid is engraved on one side with a broadside view of a paddle steamer at sea under sail and steam, identified as 'PRECURSOR'.

The wooden paddle steamer 'Precursor' (PAH8900), rigged as a barquentine, was launched in 1841 and originally owned by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company. In 1844 she was sold to the Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company, and modified. She voyaged to Calcutta and Suez, and in 1858 was used as a receiving ship in Egypt for troops and stores. She was broken up in 1869.