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Lot 36

"a fine Iron Crane necked Phaeton"
Horatio Nelson

18 October 2005, 14:00 BST
Oxford

Sold for £3,360 inc. premium

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"a fine Iron Crane necked Phaeton"
Horatio Nelson

Autograph letter signed ("Nelson & Bronte"), to "Mr Savage/ Coach Maker/ Great Queen Street", berating him for supplying him with "a fine Iron Crane necked Phaeton" when he had ordered something simpler ("...it is agreed by every one that the very neat Crane necked Phaeton which You have sent Me is far too heavy for one horse and it is certainly not of the description of Carriage I wanted, and I thought explained, a neat Common Carriage to supply the place of a Market Cart to run every day to London with the Servant, this is entirely useless to Me..."), and stating that he has therefore returned it, and in a postscript expressing the hope that it was not custom-built: "I trust You did not build this Carriage for Me as You must recollect that I ordered the very commonest carriage & this is a fine Iron Crane necked Phaeton. Mine was to be You told Me abt 30 - or 35 Guineas this seems far beyond that therefore I believe You never made it for Me", 3 pages, 8vo, integral address panel on verso, trace of wafer seal, minor dust-staining but overall in fine and attractive condition, Merton, 23 September 1802

Footnotes

Nelson to his coach-maker: this letter is not published by either Nicolas, Dispatches and Letters, or White, New Letters. J. Savage of 3 Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, is listed as "Coach-maker" in Kent's Directory for the Year 1794. A crane-necked phaeton was an elegant sporting carriage with a high-mounted seat (on a crane perch), usually pulled by a pair of horses, and far removed from the humdrum domestic vehicle Nelson had in mind.

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