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Coloured Engraving Dtd.1864 Wellington & Nelson

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Coloured Engraving Dtd.1864 Wellington & Nelson Coloured Engraving 1864 Victorian %%alt5%% %%alt6%%
We are delighted to offer for sale this Coloured Engraving, published in 1864, which depicts the only meeting between Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington and Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, which took place in September, 1805. As the detail on the bottom of the engraving, although shown, is rather faint, we will give the text below.

'London Published April 7th 1864 by A. J. Isaacs 56 Bishopsgate St. Within
Painted by J. P. Knight ARA Engraved by S. W. Reynolds
"THE ARMY AND NAVY"
THE PRINT REPRESENTING
THE ONLY INTERVIEW BETWEEN THESE GREAT COMMANDERS
WELLINGTON AND NELSON
as respectfully dedicated to the Members of the United Services, and the British nation in general.'

Also to the left is the facsimile signature of Wellington, and to the right, that of Nelson.

John Prescott Knight ARA (1803-1881) painted the original painting after which this engraving was made by Samuel Williams Reynolds the Younger (1794-1872).

This story gives the detail of the meeting between the two men. "Yes, history has a few examples of when two such great people met sometimes as old friends, sometimes as old enemies, but the cases are very rare indeed, and none more so than when two of Great Britain’s most venerated and iconic military leaders met one day for an hour Sir Arthur Wellesley, later to become Duke of Wellington, and Horatio Nelson, the greatest Naval commander of all time.

Luckily, Wellington later recalled the meeting one day at Walmer Castle on October 1st 1834 in a conversation with the noted diarist John Wilson Croker, who asked him if he had ever met the great Admiral, and what his thoughts were concerning the great man’s reputation for egotism and vanity, which conversation was recorded in the Croker papers for posterity.

It was September 1805 Wellesley had just returned from India where he had won the outstanding Battle of Assaye, and was arrived at the Colonial Office in Downing Street where, on the same day, Nelson had arrived to be given the Naval commission which would see him dead within a month at his greatest victory at Trafalgar.

In answering Croker’s question, Wellington recalled the meeting:

“Why,” said the Duke, “I am not surprised at such instances, for Lord Nelson was, in different circumstances, two quite different men, as I myself can vouch, though I only saw him once in my life, and for, perhaps, an hour.”

“It was soon after I returned from India. I went to the Colonial Office in Downing Street, and there I was shown into a little waiting-room on the right hand, where I found, also waiting to see the Secretary of State, a gentleman whom, from his likeness to his pictures and the loss of an arm, I immediately recognized as Lord Nelson.”

“He could not know who I was, but he entered at once into conversation with me, if I can call it conversation, for it was almost all on his side, and all about himself, and in really a style so vain and so silly as to surprise and almost disgust me. I suppose something that I happened to say may have made him guess that I was somebody, and he went out of the room for a moment, I have no doubt to ask the office-keeper who I was, for when he came back he was altogether a different man, both in manner and matter. All that I had thought a charlatan style had vanished, and he talked of the state of this country and of the aspect and probabilities of affairs on the Continent with a good sense, and a knowledge of subjects both at home and abroad that surprised me equally and more agreeably than the first part of our interview had done in fact, he talked like an officer and a statesman.”

“The Secretary of State kept us long waiting, and certainly for the last half or three quarters of an hour I don’t know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more. Now, if the Secretary of State had been punctual, and admitted Lord Nelson in the first quarter of an hour, I should have had the same impression of a light and trivial character that other people have had, but luckily I saw enough to be satisfied that he was really a very superior man but certainly a more sudden and complete metamorphosis I never saw.”

The engraving is very well mounted and framed in a 1 3/4" gilt frame. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 27 3/4" x 20 1/4" - 70.5cm x 51.5cm

Frame size: 37" x 29 3/8" - 94cm x 74.6cm

Condition: Very good. There is no apparent fading and no foxing. The mount and frame are in very good condition.


Price
£0  UK
$0.00  USA
0.00  EU
 The price has been listed in British Pounds.
Conversion rates as of 2/MAY/2024. Euro & Dollar prices will vary and should only be used as a guide.
Always confirm final price with dealer.
 SOLD Price confidential so please don't ask. Thank you.
 
Date 1864  Mid Victorian Antiques Material Paper Origin English Item code as237a1539 Status Sold

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Kent
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Coloured Engraving Dtd.1864 Wellington & Nelson
 
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