AN EARLY 19TH CENTURY GOLD AND ENAMEL NELSON MEMORIAL RING, ...

Hammer

£2,600

AN EARLY 19TH CENTURY GOLD AND ENAMEL NELSON MEMORIAL RING, 1806

commemorating the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar, the enamel rectangular bezel decorated with the gothic letters N and B, surmounted by a viscount’s and a ducal coronet, inside bezel engraved Lost to his Country 21 Octr. 1805, outside shank engraved with Nelson’s motto: PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT

According to a hand written list in the British Library, by Sarah, Countess Nelson, the wife of Nelson’s brother and executor William, first Earl Nelson (1757-1835), fifty-eight such rings were distributed ahead of Nelson’s funeral in January 1806 to friends and family. The small size of this example suggests a female recipient.

Enamel restored; engraving worn