.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
The arms are those of Picton, for Lieutenant Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815) K.B.
The inscription on the tureen reads in part
'TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR THOMAS PICTON, K.B. FROM THE GENERAL STAFF & OFFICERS OF THE DIVISION IN TESTIMONY OF THEIR RESPECT FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED MILITARY TALENTS UNIFORMLY DISPLAYED DURING THE CAMPAIGNS, OF 1810, 11, 12, 13, & 14 & AS A MEMORIAL OF THEIR ATTACHMENT ARISING NO LESS FROM HIS PUBLICK THAN FROM HIS PRIVATE WORTH.'
BUSACCO 27th SEPr 1810.
FUENTES D'ONOR 5th & 7th MAY 1811
CIUDAD RODERIGO 19th JANy 1812
BADOJOS 6th APRIL 1812
VITTORIA 21st JUNE 1813
PYRENEES 26th to 31st AUG 1813
ORTHES 27th FEBy 1814
TOULOUSE 10th APRIL 1814
"A rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived" was the Duke of Wellington's assessment of his general, Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), Wales's greatest soldier and the recipient of this dinner service. Trained as a soldier, Picton's career started slowly and indeed stalled following his tenure as the autocratic governor of Trinidad. His temperament was better suited to the battlefield and it was during the Peninsula Campaign, in the battles commemorated on this service, that Picton gained renown. At the close of hostilities, as the Third Division disbanded, Picton's officers presented him with this service of plate, from the £1600 raised by subscription. According to H. B. Robinson's Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, 1835, such a generous gift was proof that Picton was not the harsh or neglectful commander that his critics had made him out to be.
A fearless and highly effective commander to the very end, Picton joined Wellington in June 1815, after Napoleon's escape from Elba. Picton was injured at Quatre Bras, but carried on. Two days later, his injuries far worse, "his body blackened but even swelled to a considerable degree" Picton fell in front of his division, shot through the head, never to know of the ensuing success at Waterloo.
In death, Picton's controversial reputation was finally behind him and he received the honors due to him as one of England's greatest generals. In 1827 a column surmounted by a statue of the General was erected at Carmarthen, while a sculptural group with Picton's bust was installed in St. Paul's Cathedral, where his remains were later interred, near to those of Wellington (see: Robert Harvard, Wellington's Welsh General: A Life of Sir Thomas Picton, 1996).
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Sir Thomas Picton by Sir Martin Archer Shee
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Detail, lot 181
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Detail, lot 181
The inscription on the tureen reads in part
'TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR THOMAS PICTON, K.B. FROM THE GENERAL STAFF & OFFICERS OF THE DIVISION IN TESTIMONY OF THEIR RESPECT FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED MILITARY TALENTS UNIFORMLY DISPLAYED DURING THE CAMPAIGNS, OF 1810, 11, 12, 13, & 14 & AS A MEMORIAL OF THEIR ATTACHMENT ARISING NO LESS FROM HIS PUBLICK THAN FROM HIS PRIVATE WORTH.'
BUSACCO 27th SEPr 1810.
FUENTES D'ONOR 5th & 7th MAY 1811
CIUDAD RODERIGO 19th JANy 1812
BADOJOS 6th APRIL 1812
VITTORIA 21st JUNE 1813
PYRENEES 26th to 31st AUG 1813
ORTHES 27th FEBy 1814
TOULOUSE 10th APRIL 1814
"A rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived" was the Duke of Wellington's assessment of his general, Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), Wales's greatest soldier and the recipient of this dinner service. Trained as a soldier, Picton's career started slowly and indeed stalled following his tenure as the autocratic governor of Trinidad. His temperament was better suited to the battlefield and it was during the Peninsula Campaign, in the battles commemorated on this service, that Picton gained renown. At the close of hostilities, as the Third Division disbanded, Picton's officers presented him with this service of plate, from the £1600 raised by subscription. According to H. B. Robinson's Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, 1835, such a generous gift was proof that Picton was not the harsh or neglectful commander that his critics had made him out to be.
A fearless and highly effective commander to the very end, Picton joined Wellington in June 1815, after Napoleon's escape from Elba. Picton was injured at Quatre Bras, but carried on. Two days later, his injuries far worse, "his body blackened but even swelled to a considerable degree" Picton fell in front of his division, shot through the head, never to know of the ensuing success at Waterloo.
In death, Picton's controversial reputation was finally behind him and he received the honors due to him as one of England's greatest generals. In 1827 a column surmounted by a statue of the General was erected at Carmarthen, while a sculptural group with Picton's bust was installed in St. Paul's Cathedral, where his remains were later interred, near to those of Wellington (see: Robert Harvard, Wellington's Welsh General: A Life of Sir Thomas Picton, 1996).
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Sir Thomas Picton by Sir Martin Archer Shee
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Detail, lot 181
SUPP IMAGE TEXT:
Detail, lot 181