A Royal Worcester three piece candle snuffer set 'The Tichborne Trial (or The Tichborne Claimant), circa 1872, comprises three pieces - Arthur Orton (the claimant) modelled as a small extinguisher placed on a butchers block and John Coleridge (the lawyer) who fits over Orton to sit on the block, the block with an impressed mark, Coleridge 9cm, Orton 4.5cm and the block 6cm (3) The Tichborne Trial lasted for some 188 days, at the time, the longest in English legal history. In 1853, Roger Tichborne (the eldest son of the fourth Baronet) travelled to South America, and in 1854 is believed to have perished aboard 'The Bella' en route to Jamaica. Lady Tichborne refused to believe his death and rumours began to circulate that he had survived and made it to Australia. Lady Tichborne placed advertisements across the world asking him to return home and claim his inheritance. In 1867, through a missing persons' agency, a butcher named Thomas Castro from Wagga Wagga, Australia came forward claiming to be her son. She met and accepted him. Other family members did not believe his story and employed the then Attorney General John Duke Coleridge to disprove this claim. After lengthy enquiries, Coleridge found details suggesting Castro was in fact Arthur Orton, a butcher's son from Wapping, London. The trial ran from 23rd April 1873 to 28th February 1874 where his claim was disproved and Orton was sentenced to 14 years for perjury. Reference - Distinguished Extinguishers by Tony Horsley, pg 20/21

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