176 - THE UNIQUE WORKING REPLICA OF THE FABLED LOST DIAMOND CHELENGK PRESENTED TO ADMIRAL LORD NELSON BY SULTAN SELIM III OF TURKEY FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, 1798

THE UNIQUE WORKING REPLICA OF THE FABLED LOST DIAMOND CHELENGK PRESENTED TO ADMIRAL LORD NELSON BY SULTAN SELIM III OF TURKEY FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, 1798 crafted by Philip Denyer, London, 2017 and based on a drawing of the Chelengk discovered at the College of Arms, decorated in enamels and set in silver and gold with almost four hundred rose-cut diamonds recovered from 18th-century jewels, the largest set in the centre above a pear-shaped rose diamond, together with a single Burmese cabochon ruby, the Ottoman star within a wreath of white enamelled flower heads mounted on a concealed clockwork mechanism intended to rotate in wear, with winding key carved from Victory timber representing Nelson’s bicorn hat with inscribed gold plaque, all fitted within a George III red Morocco leather dispatch box with silver handle, London, 1802, and later gold plaque engraved with Nelson’s Chelengk crest -- 7in. (18cm.) high; the box -- 2½ x 13 x 7½in. (6.3 x 33 x 19cm.); together with a Gem & Pearl Laboratory Certificate No. 04554, dated 14 September 2011, stating the loose drilled ruby bead is of natural Burmese origin with no evidence of heat treatment and weighs 2.51cts. After the Battle of the Nile in 1798, Sultan Selim III of Turkey presented Admiral Lord Nelson with an extraordinary turban jewel for his victory over the French fleet occupying Ottoman Egypt. Known as a Çelenk, in English a Chelengk or “Plume of Triumph”, a traditional Ottoman reward for valour, the jewel was the first such award by a Sultan to a non-Muslim recipient and was presented to Nelson by a Turkish delegation in a ceremony at Palazzo Sessa, Sir William Hamilton’s residence in Naples, in December 1798, shortly before Nelson evacuated the Neapolitan royal family to Sicily. With vibrating diamond plumage representing the thirteen enemy ships captured or destroyed at the action and rumoured to be worth £10,000 (£1 million today) the jewel caused a sensation in England starting a craze for similar looking bejewelled aigrettes. Mounted within a trembling wreath of white enameled flowerheads, the central Ottoman star motif had an ingenious clockwork mechanism which rotated in wear beside a single cabochon ruby traditionally believed to protect the wearer from harm. Unsure how to display his jewel, Nelson took to wearing it on his naval hat like a turban ornament to the disapproval of King George III. He also augmented his coat of arms with the Chelengk as his heraldic crest. After Nelson’s death at Trafalgar, the jewel was inherited with his other decorations by his brother William Nelson, created first Earl Nelson, whose daughter Charlotte and later his second wife Hilare wore to Court. In the mid-nineteenth century, Charlotte reduced the jewel in size and removed its clockwork mechanism altering the jewel to its later more familiar shape. She passed it to her son General Alexander Hood, Viscount Bridport who in 1895 sold it at Christie’s for £710 (about £75,000 today). Purchased by another family member, the Chelengk was exhibited at the Painted Hall, Royal Hospital Greenwich before it was sold again, in 1929, to Sarita, Lady Barclay who, with the assistance of the National Art Collection Fund, presented it to the nation. In 1937, the jewel moved to the newly-opened National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and after a sojurn in Somerset during the war, it remained on display in the Nelson Gallery until stolen during the night of 10 June 1951, never to be seen again. In 1994, a cat-burglar called George “Tatters” Chatham confessed to the crime saying he had sold it for a “few thousand” pounds and that it had been broken up for its diamond content. Nelson lodged a drawing of his new Order with the College of Arms in London where it remained unknown until re-discovered in 2017 and which became the subject of the book Nelson’s Lost Jewel by Martyn Downer. This research made it possible to create this exact working replica (commissioned from master goldsmith Philip Denyer) allowing the Chelengk to be seen for the first time in nearly 200 years. Unveiled on Trafalgar Day 2017 in Nelson’s cabin on H.M.S. Victory it became the subject of a symposium at Goldsmiths’ Hall, and has been exhibited at Portsmouth, London and Istanbul, it also featured in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine in March 2018.