Candle snuffer tray, Board of Ordnance, 1696 (c)

Silver, by Anthony Nelme, hallmarked London, 1696-1697.

The Board of Ordnance supplied guns and gunpowder to the Army and the Navy. It also provided artillerymen and engineers, and controlled gunpowder factories, barracks, and military hospitals.

The Master-General of the Ordnance advised the Government on military affairs. The Duke of Marlborough held this important post from 1714 until 1722, the year of his death.

The Board also carried out geographical surveys, to provide the Army with reliable maps. This work was known as the 'Ordnance Survey', as it still is today. The Board was finally abolished in 1855, and its functions taken over by the War Office.