Xviiith Century Miniature Silhouette of an Admiral in the Royal Navy

A striking silhouette of a British Admiral in the late XVIIIth century. This gilded silhouette is encased in an original wooden frame which has recently been re-backed. The whole piece is in good condition - just a few light surface marks to the frame as is to be expected with such a great age as this antique miniature silhouette is over two hundred years old.

It is a beautiful miniature of an Admiral in the British Royal Navy wearing full dress uniform plus his sash of the Order of the Bath.

It is strongly believed to be Admiral Sir James Gambier (born in 1756, died in 1833). Later promoted to be Admiral of the Fleet Baron Gambier, Grand Knight Commander of the Bath (GCB), and First Sea Lord. He was the then professional head of the Royal Navy. He and his wife, Louisa, had no children so it is safe to assume that this very precious miniature would have been carried everywhere by Lady Gambier until her own death.

As a young sea going Officer aged 24 he had seen action during the American Revolutionary War against the British, and was present in 1780 at the Siege and Capture of CHARLESTON in South Carolina by the Royal Navy and the British Army. Incredibly the Royal Navy had sailed in from the Atlantic and up the Estuary in order to bombard the defended fort into submission at Charleston.

Later in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, aged 38, he brilliantly commanded HMS Defence which was the first British ship to break through the French line. Later his ship was dismasted and nearly sank.

Subsequently he served as the firm Governor of Newfoundland, and later in 1807 oversaw the (to some – outrageous) Bombardment of COPENHAGEN, the capital of Denmark.

The Second Battle of Copenhagen (16 August – 5 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture and destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. In Denmark it is widely known as the first terror attack on a European capital. The incident also led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War of 1807, which ended five years later with the Treaty of Örebro in 1812. Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental system was to launch a major naval attack on Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. In September 1807, having bombarded Copenhagen the Royal Navy seized the entire Danish fleet, and under the historic British policy of “Global Free Trade” assured the continued use of the sea lanes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the British merchant fleet. A consequence of the attack was that Denmark did join the Continental system and the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer. In the House of Commons in Parliament in London the Opposition claimed that the attack had turned Denmark from being neutral into an enemy. Canning, the British Prime Minister, replied by saying that the British were “already hated throughout Europe” and so Britain could wage an "all-out maritime war" against France without worrying who they were going to upset. The Danes lost 3,000 men and their entire fleet was captured by the Royal Navy. The British casualties totalled 43 men killed with no ships lost.

PRICE for this unique Miniature of such a distinguished and brave Admiral in the Royal Navy: £195.