HAMILTON, EMMA and NELSON, HORATIO Autograph quatrain addressed by Emma Hamilton to Horatio Nelson entitled 'veni vidi vici'
[i.e. "I came. I saw. I conquered," the phrase assigned to Julius Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch]. Single slip or page, 3 1/8 x 5 1/4 inches (7.75 x 13.75 cm), laid down on old paper (itself laid down on conservation board), the mount inscribed in an early hand 'Epigram on the Battle of Copenhagen composed by and in the handwriting of Lady Hamilton'; with an attached exhibition label numbered 955 and 3542 'Lent by Nelson Ward.' Old folds and soil.

The text reads as follows:
"Veni vidi vici
Two thirds of Caesars vaunted-Fame
Thou Nelson must Resign
to Come & see was parkers Claim
to conquer only Thine"
This evocative piece of verse was written by Emma Hamilton to her lover Nelson in the aftermath of the Battle of Copenhagen against the Danes. This was a great victory for Nelson, who was supported by the heavier first-rates under Admiral Hyde Parker, to whom Nelson was second-in-command. Parker could not easily enter the inlet to Copenhagen with these vessels (the channel soundings were not known to the British), and he delegated the actual attack to Nelson, who used vessels of lower draught. Sold in the Roy Davids Collection Part II at Bonhams in 2011.

C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation

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