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Horatio Nelson

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
Horatio Nelson

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Auction Date:2016 Apr 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “Nelson & Bronte,” one page both sides, 7 x 8.75, May 20, 1803. Letter to John McArthur, in part: “I did not expect such a letter after all my attentions to your wishes, but never mind. I do not deserve any reproach from any man I hope. I wrote you first that any arrangement you made was perfectly agreeable to me. Mr. Aldrige came in the way and as he had been used to the Vict’y, I considered it the same thing to you, and so I still think. The new Purser of the Victory you know must be indifferent to me. I look to the captaining and I have repeatedly said to you that I could not have the least objection to your going in here. I think Capt. [Samuel] Sutton will get into a serious scrape with the Admiralty for giving you leave of absence. I understand she is very deficient till Capt. Sutton judged himself for you, your recommendation shall be attended to. I never showed you any inattention and therefore little expected so unkind a letter, but I am still the same towards you.” Nelson adds a postscript, "I have influence with the Ad’y to get you or any man a first rate. I at this moment am soliciting for the removal of a namesake from Purser of a Sloop to a frigate. I have no more paper. My kindest regards to Lord Hood, I will write him as I go down channel." Professionally inlaid into a slightly larger sheet. In very good to fine condition, with light edge staining. Provenance: Anderson Galleries, New York, March 26, 1917.

On May 18, 1803, the day Britain declared war on France, Nelson was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet and designated for the HMS Victory. With his flagship not yet prepared for battle, he sailed onboard the HMS Amphion until his Flag Captain, Samuel Sutton, could join the blockade at Toulon on July 31 with the Victory. John McArthur came to the attention of Nelson through the latter’s role as a prize-agent and as purser and secretary to Lord Samuel Hood, the preceding commander of the Victory. McArthur’s initial letter is likely in defense of his ill-timed “leave of absence,” a decision Nelson gracefully touches upon while likewise encouraging McArthur to, if not accept, suggest a worthy replacement for the ship’s purser. Although McArthur declined the offer, his presumed differences with Nelson proved short-lived; he would go on to pen the first authoritative biography of Nelson in 1809. A unique and intriguing letter originating from the very onset of the War of the Third Coalition.