Nelson and Emma: An important Coalport cup and saucer by Thomas Baxter, dated 1804
Of generous size, the cup finely painted in stipple technique with a profile portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, the saucer with an anchor fouled by rope entwined forming Nelson's initials 'N&B', sprouting berried laurels, on grounds gilt with remarkably delicate foliate scrollwork, the neoclassical borders in shades of salmon-pink, interrupted by paterae left white against the gold background, cup 6.2cm high, saucer 16cm diam, the cup signed 'TBaxter 1804' in neat black script (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Sotheby's New York, 21 October 1999, lot 185

Exhibited
Emma Hamilton, Seduction and Celebrity, National Maritime Museum 2016-17

On 27 May 1804, Nelson wrote to Emma from the Victory...

'Your dear phiz (face) - but not the least like you - on the cup, is safe; but I would not use it, for all the world; for, if it was broke, it would distress me very much.'

Lady Hamilton's face was a well-documented one by 1804 but there is a good case for the present lot being that same cup that Nelson had in his cabin on Victory.

John May's paper 'The 'Emma' Cup and Saucer', was published in the Trafalgar Chronicle in 2001, a little over a year after the lot sold at Sotheby's New York, with no mention of Nelson or Emma in the catalogue. It opened up the discussion as to the origins of this extraordinary piece of porcelain. Rina Prentice follows on from this paper recording the cup and saucer in 'The Authentic Nelson', 2005, p.146. However, a crucial misattribution to Chamberlain rather than Coalport has skewed the documentation of this important piece. Scholars have sought to make it the '1 cup and saucer with a likeness of Lady Hamilton' that is recorded in Chamberlain's order books in 1802, an understandable desire but an impossible reality. The facts remain that the porcelain is Coalport and that it was painted, signed and dated by Thomas Baxter in 1804. Baxter did not move to Worcester to paint there until 1814. The cup and saucer were almost certainly painted in his London studio on Gough Square. The exquisite and intimate nature of the decoration means that it must have been a bespoke order, most likely made by Emma for Nelson.

As highlighted in the footnote to lot 21 in this sale, Baxter visited Merton on multiple occasions, sketched Emma and painted her likeness on a number of porcelain 'canvases'. However, the inspiration for her portrait on the cup is more likely after a 1798 portrait of Emma by Guy Head. Baxter may have studied this directly or more likely utilised a print of the portrait. Such an example, published by George Andrews on 14 February 1804, is in the Royal Collection, RCIN 655720, described as 'Head and shoulders, profile left, hair massed at back of head, fastened with fillet, white garment leaving neck bare'. In profile, with her classical hair-style, the portrait recalls the images of Emma used by Nelson in his seals, with which he would secure his many letters, including those written to Emma herself. The saucer too reveals an intimate association with Nelson and his letters. The finely painted monogram 'N&B' interlinked with an anchor references Nelson's signature in his correspondence. Countless letters to Emma were signed 'Nelson & Bronte'. Emma wore a dress with alternating panels embroidered 'Nelson' and 'Bronte', with fragments held in the collections at Greenwich and the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

The cup and saucer have a discernible dialogue, Emma gazing at Nelson's monogram when the two are arranged closely. A similar sentiment might be said of the scene painted by Baxter in 1806 on the Coalport plate now in the V&A C.67-1984, showing Emma in the guise of Britannia unveiling a bust of the recently deceased Nelson. However, crucially, the cup and saucer was made during Nelson's lifetime, when the infamous love affair between the Admiral and his mistress was burning bright. The purpose of the piece is not to demonstrate mourning but love and desire.

With the failing of the Peace of Amiens, Nelson went to sea in May 1803, not stepping foot on dry land until his brief and final visit to England in August and September 1805 and yet, we know that during this period communication and transport of goods between home and Victory was frequent. A letter from Nelson's secretary John Scott in May 1803 assures that, 'Mr Davison (Nelson's agent and friend) desires me to say that he will forward any parcel or package, he communicates twice a week with the Lord Nelson'. See Martyn Downer, Nelson's Purse (2004), p.236. Davison was also forwarding letters and parcels from Emma with great frequency as Nelson stayed at sea during his seemingly endless wait to engage the French and Spanish fleets in battle. It is therefore entirely plausible that the gift might have been commissioned by Emma for Nelson and sent to him on Victory, where he takes the chance to mention it, perhaps on the occasion of its arrival, in May 1804, when he writes to Emma to tell her that he dare not use the precious love token 'for all the world' in case it would be broken. Thankfully, the cup and saucer indeed survived and remain a testament to arguably the finest English porcelain decorator of the early 19th century and one of the same period's greatest and most controversial love affairs.