A Chamberlain Worcester teacup and saucer from the 'Horatia Service', circa 1802-03
The ogee shaped cup with an upswept handle, richly-decorated all over with the 'Fine Old Japan' pattern no.240, with Imari panels including a pot of flowers and a fence, reserving gold-ground panels finely painted with Ducal and Viscount's coronets and crests of the San Josef, the cup: 6.5cm high; the saucer: 15.5cm diam, the cup marked with the pattern number '240' (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson
Emma, Lady Hamilton

The Horatia Set was a Breakfast service and so it included special shapes such as egg cups, honey and butter pots and hot water plates for muffins. It also contained '12 Large Breakfast Cups and Saucers' and '12 Small ditto'. Curiously, when the set was subsequently invoiced by Chamberlains to Nelson's estate, these cups and saucers were described as '12 1/2 Pt bowls and stands' and '12 1/4 Pt bowls and stands'. The larger cups and saucers worked out at 1 guinea each, while the smaller ones cost 15s.9d each, plus extra for painting the crests and coronets.

In the 'Trickey Inventory' of Lady Hamilton's possessions drawn up circa 1813 as surety for a loan, the Horatia Set still contained '12 Breakfast cups and 12 Saucers', although there were now only '11 Tea Cups and 12 Saucers'. The present lot is one of these teacups (or quarter-pint bowls). Emma Hamilton's china was divided and apparently, some of the Horatia set passed to Horatia herself (Horatia Nelson-Ward). Other parts of the set were sold and some was in Lord Bridport's collection, by descent from Earl Nelson's daughter Charlotte.

Other cups and saucers from the set are now in museum collections. One was in the Worcester Porcelain Works Museum (prior to 1882) and this is still in the Museum of Royal Worcester. A breakfast cup and saucer is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no.3299-1901, while another, from the Sutcliffe Smith Collection is in the National Maritime Museum, nos.AAA4526 and 4533.

For further information on the Horatia Service please see the footnote to lot 41 in this sale.