7.5cm (3in) x 6cm (2.4in)
Line engraving. Oval portrait bust of Admiral Lord Nelson in Rear-Admiral’s undress uniform and wearing the Order of The Bath sash and star with Naval Gold medal at his neck. Engraved by Edward Scriven (1775-1841), after a miniature in the Royal Collection by Robert Bowyer as a ‘posthumous glorification of the national hero’, and published December 1805, a month before the state funeral held on 8/9 January 1806. Inscribed verso, ‘Gertrude Cope / 20 Grand / Parade / Brighton.’ Contained original ebonised pearwood frame.
The original miniature by Robert Bowyer (c.1758-1834) was painted in 1801 at the same time as Bowyer’s adopted daughter, Catherine Andras, was creating a wax relief profile which was later used for Boulton’s Trafalgar medal. A biographical anecdote relates: ‘When Miss Andras was working at the medallion of the hero, the celebrated miniature painter Robert Bowyer happened to be painting the other side of the great Admiral’s face upon which Nelson laughingly remarked that he was not used to being attacked in that manner starboard and larboard at the same time’.