A Coalport breakfast cup and saucer from the Reverend William Nelson service, circa 1806-08
The large cup and plain dished saucer decorated with keyfret borders in red enamel and gold, both painted with two crests of Nelson's chelengk and the stern of the San Josef with motto 'Faith and Works', surmounted by an earl's coronet, saucer 15.7cm diam (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Bonhams, 11 December 2002, lot 89

Two services in this distinctive pattern were made for the Reverend William Nelson, one in creamware, the other in Coalport porcelain. Both sets were partly breakfast services and they may have been decorated together in London. A similar Coalport breakfast cup and saucer is in the Nelson-Ward Collection in the National Maritime Museum, no. AAA4651/2, along with a milk jug from the service. Both of these had been purchased at the 1895 sale of Lord Bridport's collection. Viscount Bridport had inherited his Nelson relics by direct decent from Reverend William Nelson. In the Bridport sale, lot 41 was a selection of pieces precisely matching the description of the present cup and saucer. In 1895 lot 41, bought by 'Ward', included six large teacups and saucers, and it is possible that the present lot was one of these.