Picture This XXXIII

So popular was Admiral Nelson – in England, at least – that all manner of souvenirs and toys[i] were produced to commemorate his Naval victories and ultimately, his death.

The Staffordshire potteries churned out fairings, jugs, mugs and tea wares with rousing slogans and effigies of Nelson (figs. 1 & 2).

Fig. 1. Pearlware bust of Nelson, circa 1800-10. (Bonham’s)

Fig. 2. Staffordshire creamware Nelson commemorative jug, circa 1805-10. (Bonham’s)

Meanwhile the Birmingham toymakers set their presses to work stamping out brass handles. The brass drawer knob in figure 3 has a stamped face, spun onto a cast body. The legend reads “NELSON • LORD • OF • THE • NILE” and would have been produced following Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798.

Fig. 3. Stamped and cast brass drawer knob, circa 1800.

At 11:45 on October the 21st, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar, Nelson engaged the French and Spanish navies, famously signalling to his fleet: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” The brass backplate in figure 4 portrays Admiral Nelson in a central roundel within the legend “ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY • TRAFALGAR OCT: XXI MDCCCV”.

Fig. 4. ‘Admiral Nelson’ brass backplate, circa 1805.

Fig. 5. ‘SACRED TO NELSON’ brass backplate, circa 1805. (Jason Clarke)

Fig. 6. ‘TRAFALGAR’ brass backplate, circa 1805.

The Greek key border around the backplates in figures 5 & 6 is also seen in furniture of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries, either as inlay (fig. 7), or in the friezes of chest-on-chest and bookcase entablatures (fig. 8).

Fig. 7. Regency rosewood table with Greek key inlay, circa 1820. (Box House Antiques)

Fig. 7. George III linen press with Greek key entablature, circa 1780. (Thakeham Antiques)

Jack Plane

[i] ‘Toy’ was a contemporary name for small personal and domestic metalwares such as buckles, buttons, commemorative medals, corkscrews, furniture handles and fittings, toasting forks, watch cases and in the nineteenth-century, pressed metal novelties and playthings for children.

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