Emma, Lady Hamilton | Autograph letter signed, to Lord Nelson, a rare surviving letter, 4 October 1805

Property from the Jean Hart Kislak Collection

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Autograph letter signed, to Viscount Nelson ("my most dear Nelson"),

sending news of their daughter ("...I send you a letter of Miss Conners as there is much in it about our dear girl - you will Like it I allso had one from my mother who doats on her she says she Coud not Live with out her what a blessing for her parents to have such a Child so sweet so young so amiable..."), also with news including the desire of Lord Douglas to meet Nelson ("...he looks upon you as the greatest of all human beings...") and the suicide of Viscount Sidmouth's son, concluding with a vehement expression of her love ("...be assured my Life my Soul of your own Emmas fondest affections you are my all of good heavens bless bless you yours only yours...") 3 pages, 4to, integral autograph address panel ("Viscount Nelson Duke of Bronte To the care of Captain Keates His M Ship Superb, docked at Portsmouth"), postal markings, Canterbury, 4 October 1805, seal tears not affecting text, some browning, wear at edges

AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SURVIVING LETTER FROM EMMA HAMILTON TO NELSON. Nelson had departed from Emma for the last time on 13 September when he left Merton Place to raise his flag on the Victory. His mission was to engage the combined French and Spanish fleet, now sheltering in Cadiz, so there was no question that he faced great personal peril. Emma was left to wait for irregular letters and news of the coming battle. She had travelled to Canterbury with Nelson's brother William and family, from where this letter was written. Horatia had been left at Merton with Emma's mother and a cousin, Cecilia Connor, who had just taken her to London to buy clothes for her favourite doll. Emma originally enclosed with this letter a missive from Cecilia Connor with news of the little girl. 

Whilst Emma Hamilton carefully preserved her letters from Nelson, the vast majority of Emma's letters to Nelson were destroyed by the recipient. As a result, only fifteen letters by Emma Hamilton to Nelson are known to survive, compared to nearly 400 by Nelson to Emma. Only two of these letters, including this one, are in private hands, and all but four date from the first months of their friendship in 1798. The only other comparable letter was written four days later and provides a similarly fulsome update on family news and fulsome expressions of her devotion to her lover. Without Lady Hamilton's careful custodianship of her lover's letters we would know much less about their great romance, but she came to have cause to regret her lack of discretion. The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton (1814) was published without her approval, and it remains unclear exactly how the letters came into the hands of the publisher, Thomas Lovewell. The result for Emma was public ridicule and scandal, as well as the alienation of allies such as the Prince Regent, who found that Nelson had disparaged him to his lover. 

This letter survives because it never reached Nelson. Lady Hamilton gave it to the care of Captain Sir Richard Keats as his ship, the Superb, which was part of Nelson's squadron, was being refitted at Portsmouth. Keats set sail too late to rejoin the fleet before Trafalgar, so Nelson was dead by the time the Superb reached the coast off Cadiz.

PROVENANCE

American Art Association, Inc. to Henry Walters (1848-1941), see enclosed photocopy of letter by Arthur Swann to Walters, April 24, 1924; by descent to his wife Sarah Jones Walters; by descent to Sadie Jones Pope; by descent to Jane Pope Akers Ridgway

(1917-2011); Doyle, New York, 5 November 2012, lot 174