Bulletin No. 72 - The Moonlight Battle and other victories...

Greetings and welcome.
We start with a bang and an explosive depiction of the destruction of the Spanish 74-gun San Domingo at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1780). The so called ‘Moonlight Battle’ was a decisive British victory that clearly demonstrated the combined superiority of Royal Navy gunnery and British shipbuilding.

The Battle of Cape St Vincent (1780) after Richard Paton, 1780

Another climactic naval victory is celebrated with our next highlight, in the form of a relic French small sword captured in a celebrated ship-to-ship action between HMS Mars, under the command of Captain Alexander Hood, and the French 74-gun Hercule. Savage hand-to-hand fighting took place on the upper decks, while on the lower gun decks broadsides were exchanged at point blank range. Hood, who was wounded early in the action, bled to death but lived just long enough to receive the French captain’s sword in surrender.

Mars versus Hercule - A Relic Sword with Literary Connections, 1798

Further relics of the Napoleonic era include a fine Amazon pattern shako plate, an evocative Revolutionary period portrait miniature, a rare shoulder belt badge from the famously corrupt French customs service and a complete sheet of emergency issue bank notes; medals commemorating the battles of Trafalgar and the Nile and even a pocket snuffbox fashioned from Spanish ‘guerrilla war’ currency. Lastly, we make a visit to Napoleon’s bivouac at Bautzen, in the form of a rare porcelain group from the celebrated Sächsische Porzellan-Manufaktur Dresden!

A Collection of items from the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars

Napoleon at the Battle of Bautzen (1813), Dresden Porcelain Figure Group, 1950

Scots Guards - A Group of Company Colours, Mid 20th Century

As always there is plenty more on the website so please do click through to see all the latest pieces.

All the best,

James, Toby, George & Wesley