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Lot Essay
The only member of the distinguished Rodney family (descended from Admiral George Brydes Rodney, 1st Baron, the victor of the Battle of the Saintes in 1782) who is recorded as having an interest in yachting was Robert Dennet Rodney, 6th Baron (1820-1864). He seems to have turned to the sport after leaving the army in 1844 and was elected to the Royal Yacht Squadron in July 1845. His first boat was the Iris, a 75-ton cutter built in 1817, which he purchased from T. Fleming but only kept for two seasons, 1846 and 1847, during the first of which he succeeded to the Barony. In 1848 he acquired Urania, a large schooner of 140 tons built by Ratsey to his order, and it seems likely that this ceramic service, although of a slightly earlier date, was intended for use in her, possibly having been removed from one of the family's homes.