A very nice example of a

WW-II era

HMS Exeter (D68)

Officer's Mess/Ward Room

Tea Strainer & Stand

A  York Class Heavy Cruiser,

HMS Exeter was built in the 1920s, launched in 1929

and joined the Fleet in 1931.

In the pre-war years she served with both the

Atlantic Fleet & West Indies Station,

but will forever be remembered for her involvement in

the chasing down and sinking of 

the Kriegsmarine's mighty battleship

Admiral Graf Spee in The Battle of the River Plate 

of the coast of  South America in December 1939.

Following that major battle honour

HMS Exeter was assigned first to Aden and the to the Far East in the

war against the Empire of Japan.

Fighting in both 

Battles of The Java Sea

it was during the second battle

that HMS Exeter was sunk by the Japanese cruisers

Haguro and Nachi

with a loss of 54 crewman killed,

but 652 members of ship's company were rescued

 to spend the rest of the war as prisoners of war.

The wreck of HMS Exeter was eventually found in 2007,

and though declared a War Grave,

between 2014 & 2106 it was desecrated and plundered

by illegal salvers.

Measuring approx 1" high and  4" at its widest,

produced in EPNS and bearing the crest of

HMS Exeter

this tea strainer is a superb souvenir from

a famous Royal Naval Heavy Cruiser of WW-II

on the North Atlantic Convoy Escort duties.

(B/W Photo. courtesy of The Tomahawk Films WW-II Archive)

We are pleased to have acquired a private

Royal Naval Collection that includes a number of items of historical antecedence from the

Royal Navy's most important capital ships of World War One & World War Two

..some that featured at the Great War's 'Battle of Jutland' and

against the Kriegsmarine in WW-II in

'The Battle of the Denmark Straits' and 'The Hunting of Graf Spee & Bismarck'