Footnotes

Provenance:
Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson;
Emma, Lady Hamilton;
Private UK collection;
Trafalgar-Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, including The Matcham Collection, sold Sotheby's London, 5 October 2005, lot 90;
The Twinight Collection


Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1758-1805) was a British naval commander and national hero, famous for his naval victories against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. As a commander he was known for bold action, and the occasional disregard of orders from his seniors. This defiance brought him victories against the Spanish off Cape Vincent in 1797, and at the Battle of Copenhagen four years later, where he ignored orders to cease action by putting his telescope to his blind eye and claiming he couldn't seen the signal to withdraw.

At the Battle of the Nile in 1798, he successfully destroyed Napoleon's fleet and thus his bid for a direct trade route to India. Nelson's next posting took him to Naples, where he fell in love with Emma, Lady Hamilton. Although they remained in their respective marriages, Nelson and Emma Hamilton considered each other soul-mates and had a child together, Horatia, in 1801. Earlier that same year, Nelson was promoted to vice-admiral.

Over the period 1794 to 1805, under Nelson's leadership, the Royal Navy proved its supremacy over the French. His most famous engagement, at Cape Trafalgar, saved Britain from threat of invasion by Napoleon, but it would be his last. Before the battle on 21 October 1805, Nelson sent out the famous signal to his fleet 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. He was killed by a French sniper a few hours later while leading the attack on the combined French and Spanish fleet. His body was preserved in brandy and transported back to England where he was given a state funeral.

The Nelson Service is traditionally believed to have been presented to Nelson in 1802 by the City of London. In that year Nelson was invited to ride in the Lord Mayor's coach in the inaugural procession of the Lord Mayor. Nelson's niece, Charlotte watched the procession and wrote to her mother...'I wish you could have seen all the people jumping up to the carriage to see my uncle and the thousands of people round him looking up at him... All the ladies had their handkerchiefs out of the windows when my uncle passed, they and the people calling out "Nelson for Ever"'.

In the Trickey inventory of Emma Hamilton's possessions, circa 1813, the dessert service from the 'Nelson Set' was listed as having four oval and four round dishes along with one centre dish and twenty six plates.

A similar Paris plate from the Nelson Service is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no.3313-1901. Two other plates are in the National Maritime Museum, nos.4551/4552. The service was a mixture of Coalport and Paris porcelain, all of it decorated in London.