Lord Nelsons Mourning Ring Fetches £18,000

Insync

-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, September 25, 2008, 12:38

Some people earn through out their lives, while some manage to earn even after their dead.

A rare mourning ring made following the death of Lord Nelson has fetched 18,000 pounds at an auction. After his death aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805, fifty-eight of the rings were made for Nelson's friends, relatives and pallbearers.

The sale price of the ring was some 50 per cent higher than the pre-sale estimate, reports the Telegraph. John Salter, a jeweller of the Strand in London, made the George III gold and enamel rings. Three examples are held in the National Maritime Museum , Greenwich.

The mourning ring was one of a selection of Nelson items assembled for the auction to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth. A box believed to be made of wood from a barrel that held Nelson's body on its voyage back to Britain also sold at the Bonhams auction in London for 8,160 pounds. The box, which was expected to fetch up to 1,200 pounds only, bore the inscription 'Lost to his Country 21st Oct 1805'

Well, we can just hope that Lord Nelson 'rests in peace'.