Nelson & His World

A snippet from today's Times:


The bullet-ridden [do they mean 'riddled'?] coat and waistcoat worn by Nelson as he was fatally wounded during the Battle of Trafalgar is to go on display in Paris. They are being lent by the National Maritine [sic] Museum, Greenwich, to the Musée de L'Armée for a Napoleon exhibition. Quintin Colville, a curator at Greenwich, said, 'The coat hasn't left these shores since it returned from Trafalgar with Nelson's body'.

What a shocker! And there was me thinking all this time that there was only the one hole - at the front of the left shoulder. Somehow, I must have missed all the others.

Seriously though, I always feel a bit nervous about this type of lending, even though I'm sure it's all properly worked out.

This makes me sad I can't see Nelson being too pleased about it! I hope it's not gone for too long.


That did make me laugh

I think this must be the exhibition, and the coat is obviously one of the 280 exhibits loaned from the 56 European institutions. It looks as though it'll be a good exhibition, if anyone is thinking of going to Paris at that time:

http://www.musee-armee.fr/programmation ... urope.html

I'm sure they will take great care of the coat, but I shouldn't be surprised if some of the NMM conservation staff will also be going with it. We don't hear much about how all these exhibits are moved from one place to another around the world, but such an operation must take months in the planning, with all the logistics involved, insurance, etc. Nelson's coat must surely be the most iconic item the NMM has – I wonder how they came to insure it? The coat is presumably not worth a great deal in itself materially, but its intrinsic and historical value must be almost incalculable.


Vicki,

Glad it made your day! Actually, I had visions of him being surrounded by men with muskets, and intent on mischief (some from our own side, since there has been some suggestion that Nelson just happened to unfortunately get in the way – although I don't find scenario that likely, given the perceived trajectory of the ball.)

The National Maritime Museum say the coat will be back in time for the opening of the new gallery, Nelson, Navy, Nation 1688-1815, now opening on Trafalgar Day this year.

Phew, I'm so glad it won't be away for too long!

The Guardian said that while it's away they'll display his full dress uniform instead, which hasn't been on display for over ten years. That's quite cool, although I didn't realise there was a full-dress uniform! Isn't his Nile coat at the NMM as well- complete with grease from his pigtail?