Tobacco Tin

3D Model

This tobacco tin, which once belonged to New Plymouth builder Robert Wallath, who entered Taranaki folklore when he was unmasked as New Plymouth’s Highwayman on 20 July 1893 during a botched hold up. Rumour and yarn-spinning were common during the Highwayman saga. The tin has a faint, unremarkable dent in the lid (just visible at the top left-facing side of the coat of arms), which has been claimed to have come from stopping Wallath’s bullet, which he fired at Harold Thomson during the scuffle before his arrest. But there is no mention of a tobacco tin during the detailed trial coverage and it probably had nothing to do with his crimes. A93.051