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Lot Essay
The arms are those of Horatio Nelson, 1st Baron and Viscount Nelson (1758-1805).
The unprecedented strategic successes of Britain's naval hero, Horatio Nelson, won him both distinctions and financial reward, often in the form of silver, gold and jewels. His spectacular victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 earned him the title Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe. Securing Egypt ensured more trade with the East, and Nelson received rewards from the East India Company, the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey. The underwriters and merchants of Lloyd's Coffee House raised some £38,000 for the men responsible for this victory, so important to their shipping interests. Lloyd's also specified a gift to Nelson of £500 "to be laid out in plate." Rundell's, the Royal Goldsmith, supplied the resulting Nile Service, made in late 1800 or early 1801, as the hallmark for 1800 was actually in use through May 1801.
The set of twelve silver dinner plates from the Nile Service match other pieces marked by Paul Storr for Nelson in the same year. They bear Nelson's arms as Viscount, the title he earned in May 1801, following his glorious victory at the battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801. Some of the matching pieces are inscribed "presented by the Committee for managing a subscription made for the wounded and relatives of the killed at the Battle of the Nile, to Vice Admiral Lord Nelson and Duke of Bronte K. B. & C., who was there wounded as a testimony of the sense they entertain of his brilliant service on the 1st of August 1798, when a British fleet under his command obtained most decisive victory over a superior French force."
Following the battle of Copenhagen, Lloyd's awarded an additional £500 "to be laid out in plate in manner as you will please to direct," to supplement the Nile Service.
By the time of Nelson's death at Trafalgar in 1805, Rundell's had supplied him with over 150 pieces of silver. The present plates are described in Rundell's inventory of Nelson's silver, now at the British Library, as part of "6 doz. Gad[rooned] plates 1287oz. 19dwt." They are also included in the catalogue of Christie's 1895 auction of Viscount Bridport, Nelson's collateral descendant, under the heading "Service of plates and dishes etc. with plain gadroon borders. Engraved with the Arms and Coronets of Admiral Viscount and Earl Nelson."
Pieces from both the Nile and Copenhagen services are now in the collections of Lloyd's and the National Maritime Museum. Detailed accounts of Nelson's silver services are found in: Rina Prentice, A Celebration of the Sea, 1994; John May, "The Nelson Silver," in The Nelson Dispatch, Journal of the Nelson Society, October 1986, pp. 47-55; Warren R. Dawson, The Nelson Collection at Lloyd's, 1932, part 1, pp. 1-11.
The unprecedented strategic successes of Britain's naval hero, Horatio Nelson, won him both distinctions and financial reward, often in the form of silver, gold and jewels. His spectacular victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 earned him the title Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe. Securing Egypt ensured more trade with the East, and Nelson received rewards from the East India Company, the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey. The underwriters and merchants of Lloyd's Coffee House raised some £38,000 for the men responsible for this victory, so important to their shipping interests. Lloyd's also specified a gift to Nelson of £500 "to be laid out in plate." Rundell's, the Royal Goldsmith, supplied the resulting Nile Service, made in late 1800 or early 1801, as the hallmark for 1800 was actually in use through May 1801.
The set of twelve silver dinner plates from the Nile Service match other pieces marked by Paul Storr for Nelson in the same year. They bear Nelson's arms as Viscount, the title he earned in May 1801, following his glorious victory at the battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801. Some of the matching pieces are inscribed "presented by the Committee for managing a subscription made for the wounded and relatives of the killed at the Battle of the Nile, to Vice Admiral Lord Nelson and Duke of Bronte K. B. & C., who was there wounded as a testimony of the sense they entertain of his brilliant service on the 1st of August 1798, when a British fleet under his command obtained most decisive victory over a superior French force."
Following the battle of Copenhagen, Lloyd's awarded an additional £500 "to be laid out in plate in manner as you will please to direct," to supplement the Nile Service.
By the time of Nelson's death at Trafalgar in 1805, Rundell's had supplied him with over 150 pieces of silver. The present plates are described in Rundell's inventory of Nelson's silver, now at the British Library, as part of "6 doz. Gad[rooned] plates 1287oz. 19dwt." They are also included in the catalogue of Christie's 1895 auction of Viscount Bridport, Nelson's collateral descendant, under the heading "Service of plates and dishes etc. with plain gadroon borders. Engraved with the Arms and Coronets of Admiral Viscount and Earl Nelson."
Pieces from both the Nile and Copenhagen services are now in the collections of Lloyd's and the National Maritime Museum. Detailed accounts of Nelson's silver services are found in: Rina Prentice, A Celebration of the Sea, 1994; John May, "The Nelson Silver," in The Nelson Dispatch, Journal of the Nelson Society, October 1986, pp. 47-55; Warren R. Dawson, The Nelson Collection at Lloyd's, 1932, part 1, pp. 1-11.