Art market
Tea pots, dinner services and a mourning ring connected to the hero of Trafalgar starred in two Bonhams sales last month
ON April 23, 1804, Horatio, Lord Nelson received his final promotion, to Vice-Admiral of the White, then the fifth most senior position in the Royal Navy. I wondered whether the date had any more obvious significance in his illustrious career for Bonhams to have chosen it for their last month’s Nelson Forever auction, but it seems that was merely the luck of the calendar and, no doubt, there was some administrative reason that a lot with a clear link to the hero was actually offered the following day in a regular sale of marine interest.
This was one of the 58 mourning rings that were made by John Salter for close family and friends, pall-bearers and a small number of other dignitaries who attended the funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral on January 9, 1806. Salter, who was based in The Strand between 1802 and 1827, was a specialist in such things and evidently ran a speedy workshop. His trade card proclaims him: ‘J. Salter, Successor to Mr. Joseph Greensill, Working Jeweller, Silversmith & Sword Cutler... Great Variety of Sheffield Plate with Silver Edges. Diamonds, Pearls, Gold & Silver Lace Bought. Epulets, Sashes, Sword Knots & Accoutrements. Engraving Neatly Executed.’
This ring (Fig 3) was given to the Revd Alexander Scott, a linguist who had been Nelson’s friend, personal chaplain and ‘foreign’ secretary aboard HMS Victory, dealing with correspondence, documents and newspapers that needed translation. Nelson referred to him as Dr Scott, to distinguish him from John Scott, the personal secretary. The latter was cut in half by a cannonball beside Nelson at Trafalgar and it was the chaplain who then supported the admiral and rubbed his chest as he lay dying. He accompanied the body home and, on the day before the funeral, he wrote to Lady Hamilton: ‘When I think, setting aside his heroism, what an affectionate, fascinating little fellow he was, how dignified and pure his mind, how kind and condescending his manners, I become stupid with grief for what I have lost.’
The gold and black enamel ring, with coronets and the initials N and B for Nelson and Bronte, his Sicilian duchy, was inscribed within and without: ‘Lost to his Country 21 Octr 1805 Aged 47’ and Nelson’s motto ‘PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT’ (Let he who has earned it bear the palm). It sold for £5,120, together with a pendant enclosing a lock of Scott’s hair and a book of music that he had owned.
The actual Nelson session was made up of ceramics from several of the services commissioned by or presented to him, items such as patch boxes and engraved glasses commemorating his victories and others
