Nelson & His World

I was just about to make a post about the proposed sale of Nelson's telescope, offered for auction by the descendent of a boy aboard Victory at Trafalgar who, reputedly, had received it from Hardy. I was expecting a torrent of scepticism from members; however, the auctioneers have withdrawn it from sale owing to unanswered questions about the provenance. I was immediately suspicious because of the low estimate of £6000-8000. Allowing for the tendency of auction houses to quote low estimates to arouse interest, this seemed ridiculously low.