SAMUEL PEPYS: A HIGHLY IMPORTANT CHARLES II SILVER ‘TRENCHER PLATE’ »
Plain circular with a wide reeded border engraved with a contemporary coat of arms of Pepys quartering Talbot for Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), within a shield between tied plumes and foliate mantling. Maker’s mark MK with a mullet above and below in lozenge shaped shield (see Jackson, 137), London 1681-2. Diameter: 10 3/4 inches; weight: 17oz. […]
. View Post » Nelson: a re-discovered hand-drawn plan of the Battle of Trafalgar »
I found this pencil sketch battle plan by Admiral Viscount Nelson pasted in a 19th century scrapbook. It is dated 5 September 1805, three days after Nelson was told that the combined enemy fleet had entered Cadiz which it would have to leave soon and face an engagement. The sketch, probably hastily drawn to illustrate […]
. View Post » The Tobacco Lord’s Silver Cup »
THE FINDLAY CUP: A LARGE GEORGE III SILVER TWO HANDLED CUP AND COVER MARK OF PETER, ANN & WILLIAM BATEMAN, LONDON 1802 vase-shaped on acanthus leaf and bead-edge pedestal foot, the body applied with bellflower, oak leaf and bow festoons with obverse a military trophy and reverse a presentation inscription dated 1802, below an applied foliate […]
. View Post » Nelson’s Lost Jewel »
To coincide with the publication of my new book “Nelson’s Lost Jewel: The Extraordinary Story of the Lost Diamond Chelengk”, celebrated London jewellers Symbolic & Chase commissioned an exact replica of the fabled lost jewel based on a drawing of the Chelengk discovered in the College of Arms. Made by master goldsmith Philip Denyer, the […]
. View Post » Nelson’s Lost Jewel »
Admiral Lord Nelson’s diamond Chelengk is one of the most famous and iconic jewels in British history. Presented to Nelson by the Sultan Selim III of Turkey after the battle of the Nile in 1798, the jewel had thirteen diamond rays to represent the French ships captured or destroyed at the action. A central diamond […]
. View Post » Flag fragment and ticket from Nelson’s funeral »
LAURENCE HALLORAN (1765-1831), CHAPLAIN OF HMS BRITANNIA AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR The Battle of Trafalgar: a poem [London, 1806] Author’s copy. First edition, 8vo, half cloth, marbled boards; With supplementary additions of a ticket to Lord Nelson’s funeral, an ALS to the author from Admiral Sir Robert Calder (1745-1818) and a fragment of the Union flag flown […]
. View Post » The Stowe Basket »
A GEORGE III SILVER CAKE BASKET BY EDWARD ALDRIDGE, LONDON, 1762 Shaped oval with gadroon borders, ribbed swing handle, fretwork sides and foot, centre later engraved with arms accollé, base inscribed with scratch-weight 34=4 14 ¼ in. long (36.3 cm.); 31.5 oz. (976 gm.) The arms are for Richard Plantaganet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and […]
. View Post » Lost portrait of Lady Nelson »
I recently discovered this vivid and revealing portrait of Frances, Dowager Viscountess Nelson (1761-1831), the widow of Admiral Lord Nelson. This is the first portrait of Lady Nelson to be identified for over a century and one of only four portraits of her to survive. It offers an affecting image of Frances in the last […]
. View Post » The Inferno Silver Chamber Candlestick by Castellani, Rome, circa 1865 »
Designed as three demons kneeling round a bed of flames on which another demon sits, its arms curved to support a candle and its tail looped as a handle. The three smaller demons serve as the feet of the chamber candlestick and seem to pay homage, each in its own way, to the seated devil […]
. View Post » Captain Thomas Dundas’ Trafalgar Silver Cup »
A large silver cup, plain with tapering half-fluting and reeded edge standing on circular foot, engraved with a coat of arms within an oak wreath and robe mantling; by Solomon Hougham, London 1802. Height: 205mm / 8 inches Weighs 524 grams / 16 tr oz 16dwt Arms: Argent a lion rampant gules a bordure […]
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