A London-decorated Paris dish from the 'Nelson Set Dessert Service', circa 1802
Of quatrelobed round shape with a shell shaped handle at one side, the border with panels of bright green oak leaves and gilded acorns, reserving two panels of blue drapery and gilt inscriptions, the name 'Nelson' appearing twice, with 'Baltic' and '14th February', the centre with the full arms of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, picked out in enamel colours and gilding over a lightly printed outline, 24.5cm wide
Footnotes:
Provenance
Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Bonhams, 2 November 2011, lot 136

This dish is from the same service as the oval and circular dishes in this sale, please see lots 49 and 50 for further information on the 'Nelson Set'.

The 1813 Trickey Inventory, quoted above, listed the Nelson Set as including four oval dessert dishes and four round dishes. The only other shape listed was a single 'Centre Dish'. Technically with one side handle this is a shell-shaped dish from a dessert service, but with only one dish of this form present along with four each of the other dishes, it is easy to understand why the inventory may have thought this was the Centre Dish.

The Nelson Set was probably commissioned from a London china shop with its own decorating workshop. The Nelson dessert service is entirely Paris porcelain while the matching tea set used Coalport porcelain instead. It was not unusual for London decorators to use a mixture of Coalport and French porcelain 'blanks' in this way. Sadly most London decorators didn't mark their productions and it is hard to attribute this work. Because of his association with Emma Hamilton, some writers have suggested the Nelson Set was decorated in the workshop of Thomas Baxter, but stylistically there is no reason for this attribution.