One such specimen described by Mr Hartshorne deserves special mention. It is a goblet rather more than 8 inches in height, on the straight-sided bowl being engraved a representation of the great Admiral’s funeral car in the shape of a ship. On the stern is the historic name Victory. At the prow stands an emblematic figure of Victory, bearing in one hand a laurel wreath and in the other a branch of bay. On the canopy of the car is inscribed the word “Trafalgar,” below it the name “Nile.” It is stated that the glasses were made for the officers of the Victory, each of whom received one in memory of his chief.
The ordinary commemoration glasses made at the time of Nelson’s funeral, and publicly sold as memorials of the event, have on the one side a representation of the funeral car and on the other, encircled by a laurel wreath, the words:
In Memory
of Lord
Nelson
Janʸ 9ᵗʰ 1806
The date is that of the public funeral. These glasses were probably made in considerable numbers, but are now very rare.
Apart, however, from the funeral glasses great numbers of pieces must have been inscribed with his name as a testimony to his popularity and of the public gratitude for his victories.
Miss Wilmer in her book on “Early English Glass” gives an illustration of a tumbler inscribed with the names of Nelson, Duncan, Howe, and St Vincent and the date 1st August 1798, together with various nautical emblems. But, as we have said, the manufacture of commemorative glasses was not confined to occasions of national importance, nor were such glasses dedicated only to national heroes.
Events of very local importance were frequently signalised in this way. Thus one is inscribed “Up to Sowerby Bridge, 1758,” and serves to record certain improvements in the
A NELSON GLASS