Nelson & His World

It looks as though Nelson's 1803 'your most affectionate father' letter to Horatia made an appearance in Cheltenham this week during an 'Antiques Roadshow' filming: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... story.html This must be the famous letter acknowledging her as his daughter.

If this is the genuine article, then it is an amazing discovery.

Many old members will recall a long discussion on the old forum when a facsimile of this letter appeared for sale on ebay purporting to be genuine and was finally shown to be false. A virtual trawl through various museums established that even the NMM's letter was a facsimile and no trace could be found of the original. There was speculation that it might well have perished in the Blitz on the City of London in 1940, having been placed for safety in a bank vault by its owner.

Some superfically convincing facsimiles of this letter are still in existence as copies of this and another letter that Nelson wrote to Horatia were presented to subscribers to the fund that was set up to alleviate Horatia's financial difficulties in later life. But the experts have presumably established the authenticity of this newly-revealed letter. In which case - phew! I think £25,000 is a conservative estimate of its value. The famous 'I can neither eat nor sleep' letter to Emma was sold in 2005 for £117,000.

I agree. If genuine, as it obviously seems to be, then £25,000 is likely to be a very conservative estimate. It must have been almost a 'pin-drop' moment – I wish I'd seen it!

My first thought was whether it might be a facsimile. I wonder if any doubt will be expressed in the programme - I think we may have to wait until autumn to see!

Even the owners thought it was a facsimile - this is a comment added to the Gloucestershire Echo piece: