Anna,
The actual image of the two rings still eludes me. There
is one out there though - and I'll keep looking.
The ring Tony unearthed, attributed to Emma, exhibited in 1905 and probably stolen, I don't think is the one. However, the article mentioned: 'A Tale of Two Rings' is referred to in the following description from Rina Prentice's 'The Authentic Nelson' (page 130). I think these are the rings we're looking for:
Quote:
Pair of Rings
Another pair of rings was displayed in 1973 at the British Antique Dealer's Association Internation Art Treasures Exhibition in Bath Assembly Rooms. Here a dealer, Morton Lee, exhibited a pair of George III gold rings (item 268), one bearing a miniature painting of an eye, with a letter 'h' engraved on the back of the bezel, and the other an initial 'H' in gold framed in seed pearls on a background of hair, and the date '13 9bre'on the back. This pair of rings was claimed to be from a lady directly descended from Nelson. The eye is said to be that of Lady Hamilton, the hair Nelson's and the date to represent 13 September 1805, the day Nelson left Merton for the last time, when they may have exchanged rings.
However the interpretation of the rings has been challenged on various counts. Emma's biographer Flora Fraser thinks that the inscribed date on the ring could be the Italian 13 Novabre (November). Diana Scarisbrick, an expert on rings, thinks that the style is of an earlier period, 1785-90, and that the initial 'H' may stand for Hamilton rather than Horatio. Richard Cosway is known to have painted similar eye miniatures in the 1780s. One suggestion is that Emma retained both rings after Sir William Hamilton's death and may later have given the one with the eye to Nelson. (David W Bain: 'A Tale of Two Rings', Nelson Dispatch, Vol. 4 part 1, Jan, 1991, pp.9-11.)
Having only just embarked on a Berlitz speak Italian quickly course, I can't comment on the possible interpretation of the date. But did Emma ever use the name Horatio, Horace or Hor? As far as I can recall (when she wasn't having fun with Baron Crocodile, Prince Victory and so on) to her, he was always simply Nelson.