A Chamberlain Worcester butter tub and cover from the 'Horatia Service', circa 1802-03
The drum-shaped tub with scrolled handles and a ring finial, richly-decorated with the 'Fine Old Japan' pattern no.240, the Imari panels including pairs of green quail, alternating with gold-ground panels reserved with a Naval Crown, a coronet and the crest of the San Josef, 14.5cm across the handles, marked inside the cover with the pattern number 240 (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Bonhams, 5 June 2019, lot 239

An inventory of china belonging to Lady Hamilton was drawn up circa 1813 when Emma desperately needed money. The china and glass that she had inherited from Merton was by then packed in crates and in order to secure a loan, a detailed list was compiled, known as the 'Trickey Inventory'. The 'Horatia Set' was listed as containing '1 butter cooler, cover and stand'. The original order from Chamberlains indicates that two of these had been delivered, at a cost of £1.12s each, and so the second butter tub must have been broken by Emma or one of her guests. Among other undated inventories preserved at Greenwich is a separate 'List of Breakages by Lady Hamilton'. Indeed, by the time that the 1813 list was written, at least one cup, one saucer and a sugar box had also been broken from the Horatia set.

The present lot is, therefore, the only surviving butter tub from the Horatia service. When it was sold at Bonhams on 5 June 2019, lot 239, the present owner recalled that her mother was given it by a neighbour who was a 'Mrs Nelson'. This was possibly a member of the Nelson-Ward family, who were descended from Nelson and Emma's daughter after whom the set had been named. The extensive Nelson-Ward collection of Nelson memorabilia was bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in 1946 and included one of the dishes for warm muffins from the Horatia Service, on which the butter from this tub would have been spread.

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