Lawrence Gahagan (1756-1820) †
ADMIRAL LORD NELSON 1st Jan 1806
£23,000
Auction: 28 September 2002 at 12:00 BST
Description
marble, the plain neck encircled by a scarf bearing the Large Naval Gold Medal, on a socle plinth; resting on a circular pedestal hung with a laurel wreath, carved from oak removed from HMS Victory
The bust inscribed to rear 'L. Gahagan Fecit Jan 1st MDCCCVI'; the plinth bears brass plaque inscribed 'Part of the Victory, Trafalgar 21st October 1805, Presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to the Caledonian United Service Club 1844'
bust 57cm high (including socle 13cm high); plinth 61cm high, 30cm diameter
Footnote
Provenance: The Caledonian Club, formerly the Caledonian United Service Club, Edinburgh.
Nelson sat to Gahagan at his lodgings in London in 1798 for the bust which he exhibited at the Royal Academy and is now the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. He and his family subsequently developed something of a reputation for producing likenesses of Nelson although including this one only four marble examples are known, all of them slightly different. The other marbles are at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, and the Homan Potterton Collection, New York; the latter is signed and dated in a similar manner to this one, the date being 1815.
The pedestal was made from oak stripped from HMS Victory, as confirmed by an entry in the Minutes of the Club from the 1st March 1844 which records a letter from Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty. It is an interesting addition to the cannon of furniture made from timber stripped from the ship.
The bust itself is not mentioned in the index of the Club's Minutes; a thorough reading of the Minutes themselves has not been undertaken.
The Caledonian United Service Club was founded in April 1825, making it the second oldest service club in the UK. It closed this year.
Richard Walker The Nelson Portraits 1998 Royal Naval Museum pp. 61, 209-213.
Rupert Gunnis Dictionary of British Sculptors Revised addition. pp.160-161
Caledonian Club MSS National Archives of Scotland GD309