Beschreibung:

Views of the Memorable Victory of the Nile, etched and engraved by Frances Chesham, aquatints by William Ellis after William Anderson [2nd edition], published Alexander Riley, 1 December 1800, a rare set of 4 aquatints with original hand colouring, descriptive letterpress trimmed with loss of all below publisher's imprint to each, laid on card and mounted to show image and engraved details of ships to lower margins, contemporary gilt frames with verre-eglomise ruled and decorative borders with title captions, glazed, visible image area 178 x 370 mm (7 x 14.5 ins) Provenance: A manuscript note written by Horatio Mends, signed and dated at York, 13 March 1928, giving the provenance of these aquatints is pasted to the backing board of all 4 pictures. The first reads: 'This is No. 1 of a set of 4 aquatints once the property of Viscountess Nelson. My mother, wife of Vice Admiral G.B.C. Mends and daughter of Captain Josiah Nisbet, son of Lady Nelson by her first marriage gave them to me. I have known them from early childhood as having belonged to Lady Nelson'. Lady Nelson had married Josiah Nisbet MD in 1779, but he died in 1781 leaving her an infant child, also called Josiah. This Captain Josiah Nisbet (1780-1830) was married to Frances Herbert Nisbet with whom he had six children. The youngest, Georgina Nisbet (1830-1904) married Vice-Admiral George Butler Clarke Mends (1808-1884), and it is their only child Brigadier-General Horatio Reginald Mends CB (1852-1933) who has written these notes of provenance. Viscountess Nelson bore her husband no children, but Nelson was fond of his stepson Josiah, even taking him to sea in 1793 for training as a naval officer. For the next few years he and Fanny wrote to each other affectionately and regularly. By the time Nelson returned to England in 1797 he was a changed man and in pain from the loss of his lower right arm following an attack on Santa Cruz, Tenerife. Fanny nursed him devotedly and this proved to be their happiest time together. Returning to sea in 1798 Nelson won the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and fell in love with Emma Hamilton. News of the affair reached England before Nelson and the Hamiltons returned in 1800. Though Fanny did her best to reconcile with him these attempts failed, though Nelson treated her generously, allocating her half his income. Fanny became Baroness Nelson in 1798 and Viscountess Nelson in 1801. After his death she was awarded a pension and lived in Exmouth until her death in 1831. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes of Fanny that 'When, in 1798, he [Lord Nelson] destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile she was touchingly proud of him', and the survival of this fine set of aquatints with strong anecdotal family provenance enhances this historical viewpoint. (4)