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Sotheby's to Sell Lord Nelson's Watch

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Sotheby's to Sell Lord Nelson's Watch SOTHEBY'S TO SELL LORD NELSON'S WATCH ● "The greatest Nelson relic remaining in private hands" ● The pocket watch used by the Admiral in the last years of his life and carried by him to his death at the Battle of Trafalgar SOTHEBY'S TRAFALGAR SALE LONDON, 5TH OF OCTOBER 2005 NELSON AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS ADMIRAL NELSON'S POCKET WATCH Estimate: £250,000-350,000 SOTHEBY'S IS delighted to announce that it has been instructed to sell Admiral Horatio Nelson's pocket watch. Worn and treasured by Nelson for the last - and most glorious - years of his life, the watch was with him when he met his death at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. Estimated at £250,000 – £350,0001, it will be the highlight of "The Trafalgar sale" – a sale devoted to Nelson's life and the objects surrounding it - to be held at Sotheby's in New Bond Street on Wednesday, October 5, 2005. One of only a handful of personal relics that survive from Nelson's last hours2, the watch has been described by Martyn Downer, author of Nelson's Purse, as "one of the most evocative pieces in the jigsaw of personal effects that survive from Nelson's last hours." The watch emerged from the reserve collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich - to which it had been on loan for more than seventy years - when its owner contacted Martyn Downer whose book describes his discovery of Nelson's bloodstained purse among a trove of lost Nelsonian treasures sold by Sotheby's for more than £2 million in 2002. Downer continues: "Gazing at the watch today, knowing that Nelson must have frequently glanced at it as the battle raged all around him that fateful morning so long ago, is strangely affecting. Nothing was more important to a naval commander than his timekeeper—after all his own and his men's lives depended almost entirely upon it— so it would only have been very gently removed from him later on as he lay dying in the bowels of his flagship, the Victory, amid indescribable scenes of horror. This extraordinary object has been touched, quite literally, by the hand of history. It is impossible to imagine a Nelsonian treasure of similar importance and of such impeccable provenance ever appearing at auction again." Nelson's watch is a very rare surviving example of one of the most sophisticated time pieces of the period – Josiah Emery's lever escapement watch. Heralded as one of the greatest watchmakers of his day, and heavily patronised by the aristocracy and the royal family alike, Emery3 (c.1725-1794) was one of the first watchmakers to employ the revolutionary lever escapement in his watches - the key element of every mechanical watch to this day. No more than 22 examples of Emery's lever watches are known to survive today and, of those, none has a more extraordinary history than No.1104, which was carried by Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. With precise timing such as that provided by Emery's pocket watch, a competent sailor could accurately work out his position on the globe, and so – in terms of technical achievement at the time – Emery's watch might be compared to the recent advances in gauging global positioning through satellite. It is unlikely that Nelson purchased the watch brand new from Emery's shop in Charing Cross. When the watch was completed in around 1787, Nelson, then a little known captain, simply did not have the means to purchase such an expensive and exclusive timekeeper, which would have cost him at least £100 at the time. It is possible that he bought the watch with hard-earned prize money later, perhaps following his triumphant return to London, after the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 when he was promoted rear-admiral and knighted by the king. More likely, however, he purchased it, or received it from an admirer, after his great victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Whatever the date of purchase, it is certain that Nelson owned the watch by 1802, when he was seen using it to time the steam presses at Matthew Boulton's famous Mint, near Birmingham, as they churned out thousands of coins. More movingly still, further scratch marks on the movement indicate that Nelson had the watch overhauled during his final brief period of leave in England in August 1805. Weeks later he, and his watch, departed on their fateful last mission together. After Trafalgar, the watch was inherited by Nelson's heir, his brother William Nelson, the 1st Earl Nelson. In the short inventory of Nelson's personal belongings removed from Victory when she reached London in December 1805 - with the admiral's embalmed body still on board - the chronometer is listed as "No.7 A gold watch". At Earl Nelson's death in 1835, the watch - together with Nelson's medals, swords and other effects - passed to the earl's sole surviving child, his daughter Charlotte (1787-1873). As a child, Charlotte Nelson had been a great favourite of Nelson's and, in particular, of his mistress Emma Lady Hamilton to whom she was a constant companion, almost a ward, in the years before Trafalgar. "How proud I am to have the approbation of my most glorious, victorious, virtuous uncle" Charlotte wrote to her mother from Merton Place, the house that Emma and Nelson shared together near London, "and my future life in every act and instance shall be to do honour to the near relationship, which I have the happiness to bear towards him. May God Almighty spare his precious life." After she received her uncle's watch from her father's estate, Charlotte arranged for it to be mounted in a gilt carriage clock case, evidence of the high importance she attached to it. She arranged for the case to be engraved: The chronometer of Horatio Viscount Nelson, worn by him at the battle of Trafalgar, placed in this case by his Niece, Charlotte Mary, Lady Bridport, to be preserved for any one of her descendants who may enter the Navy Most of Nelson's personal effects remained with the Bridport family until 1895 when they were sold at Christie's by Charlotte's eldest son. Many of the more important items, such as the admiral's medals and decorations, were purchased by the government and placed in the Royal Hospital, Greenwich. Nelson's watch, however, was not included in the sale, presumably because of Charlotte Nelson's earlier request that it "be preserved for any one of her descendents who may enter the Navy". Fortunately, this saved it from the fate of the other items which were stolen from the Royal Hospital in 1900 and irretrievably lost. The watch continued to descend through branches of the family until it passed to the current owner by bequest. It was exhibited at the Royal Naval Exhibition in 1891 and at the Royal United Services Museum exhibition in 1932. Rarely seen by the public, the watch has been on long-term loan to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich ever since. Other highlights of October's Trafalgar sale include: ● The largest known fragment of the union flag from H.M.S. Victory, which was torn to pieces by distraught seamen at Nelson's state funeral where it covered his coffin. Est: £100,000-£150,000. ● An iconic image of Lord Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott. Estimated at £80,000-£120,000, the work shows Nelson in Rear Admiral's uniform and is possibly the finest of the artist's renderings of Nelson still in private hands. An instantly recognisable image of a British hero. ● A Naval Captain's gold medal presented to Captain Brooke following the capture of the American frigate the Chesapeake off Boston Harbour in 1813. Est: £150,000-200,000. ● A gold and enamel City of London Sword presented to Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke, following the capture of the Chesapeake. Est: £80,000-£120,000. ● A very rare and apparently unrecorded broadsheet printed in red ink announcing Admiral Lord Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar. Printed by J. Smeeton in London in 1805, the broadsheets lists all the ships engaged in the battle (with numbers of crew and guns for each) and describes the English victory as "The most glorious Naval victory... since the creation of the world." Est: £25,000-35,000. ● An affectionate unpublished letter from Nelson to Lady Hamilton ("Fair Emma, good Emma, Great Emma, Virtuous Emma and My own dear Emma... friend of my heart"), expressing his frustration that his duties prevent him from seeing her and assuring her that he will be in no danger when he goes to the French coast the next day. Written on 13th August 1801. Est: £20,000-£30,000. ● A series of letters by George Perceval, later third Lord Arden and Admiral (1794-1874), including one letter written at the age of eleven, giving his mother first-hand news of the Battle of Trafalgar at which he was present on H.M.S. Orion, [late October 1805]. Est: £20,000-£30,000 ● The journal of seaman Thomas Fletcher (b.1779), on H.M.S. Defence, including a first-hand account of the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. Est: £15,000-£20,000 IMAGES AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL Notes to editors: 1. Estimates do not include buyer's premium. 2. His bloodstained uniform was purchased for the nation by Prince Albert in 1845 and is now the principal exhibit at the National Maritime Museum, alongside the admiral's hair which was cut off after his death.
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