CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018 29Saleroom
CHARLES MILLER LTD
Price of fame:
Nelson’s many faces
At Charles Miller Ltd’s most recent auction,
aff ordable Nelson collectibles, including prints,
a snuff box, papier-mâché tray and Parianware bust
demonstrate how Nelson’s image was variously
idealised and at other times more honestly
portrayed.
Some of the many faces of Nelson that fuelled a
booming souvenir industry in life and after surfaced.
Produced during his life are a circa 1799 mezzotint
revealing the wound above his right eye (sold for
£427) and more idealist depiction on a circa 1800
snuff box (£915). After his death the Nelson craze
gathered even more momentum, with his face
adorning this circa 1820 papier-mâché tray (£793);
the easy-on-the-eye, mid-late 19th century
Parianware bust (£305) was a popular parlour piece.BONHAMSBONHAMSCHARLES MILLER LTDBY DAVE SELBYWhen the chair in which Nelson contemplated his fate on the eve of
Trafalgar came up at auction, it was estimated to fetch £30,000-50,000. At
the time (in CB353) your humble correspondent wrote: “It may fetch a lot
more.” Well, blow me if didn’t go on to fetch a whopping £106,250 at
Bonhams.
This is the leather armchair that was a love token from Nelson’s
mistress Lady Emma Hamilton. Known simply as ‘the Emma’, it resided
in Nelson’s cabin aboard HMS Victory and is one of the more resonant
of his personal artefacts. It also proved a shrewd investment, because
when previously sold at auction in 1980 it had fetched £1,320.
Each year, around the anniversary of the naval hero’s death on
October 21, there’s a fl urry of market activity in the sale rooms. The cult
of Nelson and Emma Hamilton, often dubbed the fi rst modern
celebrities, spawned a souvenir industry both in life and after.
Other artefacts give an insight into the pressures of public life and the
sometimes peevish nature of a commander who often felt hard done-by
by the Admiralty. In an 1801 letter demanding his pay so he could buy
his Merton love nest and avoid the gaze of publicity, Nelson bemoans:
“If I continue this command for much longer, ruin to my fi nances must
be the consequence, for I am being called upon being thought very rich.”
Nelson paid £9,000 for his bolt-hole; the letter relating to it sold for
£13,750 at Bonhams.
With a profi le to maintain, Nelson also spent extravagantly at times while
pretending to have modest tastes. In a letter to Emma about his plans for
Merton he wrote: “We will eat plain, but will have good wine, and a hearty
welcome for our friends.”
And that he certainly did, for in 1802 he ordered a 150-piece breakfast set,
paying an extra £1.50 per plate just for the addition of his crest painted in the
centre of each. Payment was fi nally settled by his estate in 1806, a year after
his death. A specimen plate for a more ornate dessert set that was never
completed sold for £31,250 at Bonhams.
Earlier, from the relief fund of the Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson was
awarded £500, which he put towards 72 silver plates and soup bowls. A
single plate from that service fetched £37,500 at Bonhams.BONHAMS
The value of Nelson