Nelson & His World

I have done a bit more digging and lo and behold the facts behind this letter are all there in black & white (and nothing to do with the aigrette as I guessed previously).

I have access to one of the newspaper databases and I did a bit of digging in there and an example of what I found is below. I can't find it reported in the Times but it was in several regional newspapers - this one just happens to be the Ipswich Journal.

This event in Hamburgh where the diamond was lost was just as Nelson and the Hamiltons were at the end of their overland journey from Naples. Emma, not surprisingly, sang a couple of songs during the course of the evening. And it brings in the Queen of Naples and the Battle of the Nile. If the auctioneers make the most of all this info it has surely added another grand to the value of the letter!!

I will contact them but I first want to check out what happened to the sword that the diamond was lost from (the gift of the Queen of Naples). I probably have the answer here somewhere but if anyone can beat me to it that would be appreciated.

Why do I get myself into these things? LOL!

P.S. It makes you wonder if the auctioneers should withdraw the letter from this sale and do a proper marketing job on it for a later sale. But I don't suppose they will.

Excellent work, Mark! I'm disappointed in myself for not checking the auctioneer's website for a larger copy of the letter.

Great sleuthing, Mark! Do keep us posted on the auctioneer's reaction.

Yes, good work as usual Mark. I've just looked on the auctioneers website and I see the letter is in a mixed sale of Posters, Autographs and Memorabilia, rather than for instance, a specialist marine/nautical sale and is a later lot featured amongst the autograph books and photos etc being auctioned. If being sold just for the signature, perhaps that may be why the significance of the letter may not have been fully investigated before.

The details of the lot mention that it is pasted onto an album page, presumably from a wider collection of autographs. I wonder what may be written on the reverse side that can't been seen, the recipients name & address perhaps? Also, has the letter been cut down to fit the page?

Phil

Thank you for comments above.

I have decided that I will definitely send an email to Dreweatts and Bloomsbury with a summary of my findings.

But in the meantime, as I said above, I thought it would be interesting to know what became of the sword from which the diamond was lost. And as is usually the case with me this bit of research has taken on a life of its own.

My first port of call was the catalogue of the 1891 Royal Naval Exhibition and yes indeed it was loaned for display there, but my heart sank slightly when I saw that it had been loaned by Viscount Bridport. Bridport was of course a descendant of William Nelson and had inherited many of the most precious Nelson artefacts - and then proceeded to sell them at an auction sale in 1895!

So jump forward to the results of the 1895 auction as reported in the Times. (Extract below). As you will see the sword was by then described simply as a "hilt" which suggests that the blade had been removed??!! But not only that. In addition the diamonds had been removed from the hilt and replaced with paste copies and the original diamonds had been made into a necklace!!

But something that really intrigues me is that the Times shows the purchaser of the sword hilt as Hood. And Hood of course is the family name of the Bridports. So it as if Viscount Bridport put all these items up for auction but another family member bought the sword hilt back.

I suppose Christies (the Bridport auctioneers) might know exactly who bought it or there might be some other way to track down where it is today, but I have pretty much run out of time for anything I am going to send to Dreweatts and Bloomsbury. I'll fire off an email to them this evening and watch any (if any!) developments with interest

ATB

Mark

PS There is of course a current Viscount Bridport. If all else fails he might know what became of the sword hilt!

This replaces an earlier post which I have deleted as it had some totally inaccurate information. If anyone read it, ignore!

Rina Prentice's 'The Authentic Nelson' explores at length the history of much Nelson memorabila. On page 76, she notes that 'after the battle of the Nile the King of Naples had presented to Nelson a small-sword with a gold hilt thickly studded with diamonds. While wearing the sword at a fete arranged in his honour by the English merchants at Hamburg in 1800, Nelson lost a large diamond from the hilt worth £800, which could not be recovered.' She then recounts details of the sale which Mark has noted above. She then adds that 'Lady Llangattock subsequently bequeathed the sword to Monmouth'. Presumably, if she did not buy it at the sale, she got hold of it later.

Sadly, the sword hilt was stolen in a robbery at Monmouth on the night of 9 November 1953. Richard Dimbleby had presented a programme on the Nelson Collection at Monmouth on Trafalgar Day that year which might have alerted the robbers to the prospect of a haul. A number of valuable items were stolen. Some were subsequently recovered on the arrest of a market trader Ronald Walker (60 of the 91 missing items). Of the recovered items 33 were intact but the remaining 27 had been vandalised and broken up for their valuable parts which were never recovered. She does not mention whether the sword hilt was recovered. I don't recall having seen it at Monmouth so it was probably one of the lost or vandalised items. (The full account appears in 'The Authentic Nelson' by Rina Prentice, published by the NMM 2005, ISBN 0948065691)

Wow! well spotted Anna.What an intriguing story this is turning into. But how sad if the sword hilt was lost/destroyed in the robbery at Monmouth.

The entry in "The Authentic Nelson" led me to the image below so we have the one small consolation that at least we know what it looked like. There seem to be 2 or 3 large diamonds and many smaller ones so maybe it was one of the large ones that was lost at Hamburgh.

Anna, the records at Monmouth will doubtless show if any part of the sword hilt was recovered after the robbery. If you wouldn't mind emailing them and asking them what they know that would be much appreciated.

I'll report back if I hear anything from the auctioneers. But they may have already dismissed me as a crank. It wouldn't be the first time. LOL

Thanks for posting the image, Mark.

I'll drop an email to Monmouth but it might take some time to get a reply. The Nelson Museum has been badly affected by financial cuts and the excellent Andrew Helme is longer curator there. The museum is managed at a distance by Chepstow. I'm not sure whether they will conduct searches on behalf of enquirers. I'll ask anyway.

What fun this is turning out to be! I am sure it must be of interest to any potential purchaser to have background information about the last(!)/lost diamond.

I have just checked the auctioneers website and the letter was sold for £1,700 .

Phil