Auction Catalogue

26 June 2018

Starting at 2:00 PM

.

Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

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Lot

№ 235

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26 June 2018

Hammer Price:
£1,500

A memorial hairwork bracelet for Copenhagen, the charger of the Duke of Wellington, the plaited hair bracelet with engine-turned rectangular gold panel clasp, the reverse inscribed ‘From the Mane of the Charger COPENHAGEN which carried the DUKE OF WELLINGTON 18 successive hours on the 18th June 1815’, The Battle of Waterloo’, length 18.5cm. £800-1200

Copenhagen (1808-1836) was the Duke of Wellington’s war horse, which he famously rode at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Of mixed thoroughbred and Arabian parentage and a former race horse, Copenhagen was sent to Spain with Sir Charles Vane in 1813, and was then sold to the Duke of Wellington and was to become his favourite horse.
Wellington rode Copenhagen in a number of battles, most famously the Battle of Waterloo and continued to ride him in parades and ceremonial events afterwards.

The horse was retired to the Duke’s estate Stratfield Saye House, and lived there for the remainder of his life, dying at the age of 28 years. On the marble headstone of Copenhagen’s grave, were the words inscribed: ‘
God’s humbler instrument though meaner clay should share the glory of that glorious day’.