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A RARE AND EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE FRAGMENT OF THE WHITE ENSIGN FLOWN FROM VICE ADMIRAL LORD NELSON’S FLAG SHIP VICTORY AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, 21ST OCTOBER, 1805 A RARE AND EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE FRAGMENT OF THE WHITE ENSIGN FLOWN FROM VICE ADMIRAL LORD NELSON’S FLAG SHIP VICTORY AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, 21ST OCTOBER, 1805 hand-stitched wool bunting, evidence of contemporary powder stains and splinter tears -- approximately 34 x 36in. (86.5 x 91.5cm.) Admiral Hugh William Dobbie RN (1812-1889). By his gift to the Royal United Service Institution, London, April 1860. Wallis and Wallis Ltd: Contents of the Royal United Services Museum, 1961. Wallis and Wallis Ltd: Anonymous sale, 10 January 1995, lot 1077. Sotheby’s London: Trafalgar - Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, including The Matcham Collection, 5 October 2005, lot 102. Sotheby’s London: Of Royal and Noble Descent, 17 January 2018, lot 116. Private Collection, UK, acquired from the above sale. EXHIBITED: Royal United Services Museum, Whitehall, London SW1, 1860-1961. LITERATURE: The Official Catalogue of the Royal United Services Museum, London, published in 1908, 1914, 1920, 1924, 1932, no. 2349. Rina Prentice, The Authentic Nelson, 2005, p.176. After the battle, the ensign from Nelson's own flagship H.M.S. Victory was returned to England with the ship and the body of the Admiral. This battle ensign, a powerful and affecting relic of Nelson's final and greatest victory, was later incorporated into the solemn and dignified series of ceremonials that marked his State Funeral in January 1806. The body lay in state at the Painted Hall at Greenwich for four days before processing upriver in a funeral barge with a flotilla of naval escorts, disembarking at Whitehall Stairs and resting overnight in the Admiralty. The following day, 9th January, a vast procession followed Nelson's remains to St Paul's Cathedral, the site of the funeral. Incorporated into the funeral cortege was a group of 48 seamen and marines from H.M.S. Victory, who bore with them Victory's ensign and were, according to one eyewitness, "repeatedly and almost continually cheered as they passed along." At the conclusion of the funeral service, with the coffin placed in the crypt of the Cathedral beneath Wren's great dome, it was intended - as stated in a recently discovered letter of 1860 from the Secretary of the Royal United Services Institution to Captain Dobbie (the original owner of this large fragment) for Victory's ensign to be placed with Nelson in the vault, but was spontaneously torn up and appropriated by the sailors who had carried it. As the Naval Chronicle reported: the Comptroller, Treasurer and Steward of his Lordship's household then broke their staves, and gave the pieces to Garter, who threw them into the grave, in which all the flags of the Victory, furled up by the sailors were deposited - These brave fellows, however, desirous of retaining some memorials of their great and favourite commander, had torn off a considerable part of the largest flag, of which most of them obtained a portion.' Captain Dobbie's fragment is the largest known surviving piece from Victory's ensign and, accordingly, the most poignant and historically important of the small group of surviving flags from the Battle of Trafalgar. These comprise the Union Flag of H.M.S. Minotaur (collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), H.M.S. Spartiate (sold Christie's London July 2025, £1,068,500) and H.M.S. Royal Sovereign (sold Treasure House Fair, Chelsea, July 2025, £450,000). later mounted and framed -- 44½ x 44½in. (113 x 113cm.)