12 13th November 2010 london selection Vernet finds favour while
■ Maritime specialist continues to draw range of collectors
■ Nelson memorabilia sees second major failure in a month
Kate Hunt reports
CHARLES Miller’s (20% buyer’s premium) biannual London maritime sales include pictures, models, instruments, collectables, naval and sailor art and appeal on many levels to a broad church of American and European, as well as UK buyers.
Some are drawn by the technical
accomplishments of the skilfully constructed ship models such as the large £28,000 French prisoner-of-war-style bone and baleen model of the 50-gun fourth-rater Leander that was the joint top lot in the firm’s 232-lot sale on October 27. Those with a scientific interest are
attracted to the wide array of early compasses, globes and sextants that were essential to accurate navigation and world exploration. The 65-lot instrument section fielded just four casualties and included an important £3800 mahogany and brass prototype octant by Edward Troughton, London c.1782-5 – thought to be the earliest of Troughton’s signed double-framed octants designed to prevent scale expansion and aid navigational accuracy at sea. “In its own way this octant is quietly
exciting,” enthused Mr Miller. For others it is simply the evocative
scrimshaw, decorated sailors’ art recalling long months spent at sea, that are the greatest pull. A pair of large 19th century whales' teeth, incised with figures in national costume and classical dress reputedly given by Queen Victoria to the Count and Countess of Paris, made £3000. For many though, it is the memorabilia
relating to Britain’s most iconic naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, that holds the most enduring fascination. It is a field where Mr Miller had his most resounding
Right: foremost in a seven- lot collection of Claude-
Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) pen and wash drawings was this study of a warship’s prow that fetched £28,000 at Charles Miller’s
October 27 maritime auction.
Below right: Vernet’s A Xebec at anchor unloading its cargo made £18,000.
Below: this large French prisoner-of-war style model of the 50-gun 4th rater
Leander, measuring 2ft 2in by 2ft 11in (66 x 89cm), made £28,000.
success last year with the Trafalgar flag from HMS Spartiate that made £320,000. The pre-sale highlight this time
was a painted silk armorial hatchment measuring 17½ by 23½in (45 x 60cm) from Nelson’s state funeral, bought by the private vendor in 2002 for £31,000 at Dreweatt Neate. The historic hatchment was one of six
black and white heraldic panels bearing the impaled arms for Lord and Lady Nelson that covered Nelson’s coffin. The coffin was famously drawn in the “Grand Funeral Car” escorted by 10,000 troops through London to St Paul’s Cathedral on January 9, 1806.
Following Nelson’s funeral, this panel
came into the possession of his chaplain, Reverend Alexander Scott (1768-1840) and it was a direct descendent who consigned it to Dreweatt Neate. A second hatchment made £45,000 at Spink and Son in 1997. However, pre-sale interest from several
collectors in the busy pre-sale view did not translate into bids on the day, leaving the cloth unsold against an estimate of £30,000-40,000. It was London’s second high-profile
Nelson memorabilia casualty in a month. The previous week at Morton and Eden on October 22 there was no buyer for
Nelson’s Star of the Order of the Bath, presented to him on his victory at the Battle of St Vincent in 1797 and expected to fetch £300,000-500,000. Mr Miller felt it was too early to say
whether or not these two failures suggest a “cooling off” in this market. He noted there were fewer American dealers present this time round and felt that the recent deaths of two notable American collectors of Nelson memorabilia may have had a bearing on the outcome. Veteran dealer in maritime art
Laurence Langford of Portsmouth-based Langfords does not believe there is any imminent downturn in the market,
Above: these 19th century narwhal tusks brought £11,000 each at Charles Miller.
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