ADAM DUNCAN is a significant figure in Dundee history – and many believe his role in the wider history of the British Isles has been played down, partly due to the infatuation with Horatio Nelson of column fame – though not this one.
Duncan, of course, is better known as Admiral Duncan, victor of the Battle of Camperdown in 1797. The battle was the most significant action against Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars and resulted in a complete victory for the British, who captured 11 ships without losing any of their own.
Dundee-born Duncan became a national hero after his invasion-preventing action. Britain exulted in news of his triumph. Guns were fired and church bells rang. A State thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London and when Duncan was invited to dine with the Lord Mayor his ‘chariot’ was drawn by cheering crowds down Fleet Street and all the way to the Guildhall.
And so the memorabilia flowed. There were portraits and paintings, etchings and engravings, silver and pottery, maps, medals and monuments. Duncan even appears on a fire surround in Leith.
Most major items are in museums now – but occasionally Duncan memorabilia surfaces at auction, fairs and in dealers’ stock. I recall mentioning a horn beaker engraved with the admiral’s achievements which took £950. Another column mentioned a pearlware jug adorned with Duncan’s portrait which took £3600.
So to an item I have not come across before – a rare Admiral Duncan-related fan which appeared in Forum Auctions’ sale of books, manuscripts and printed works on paper in London on July 10.
The fan is contemporary to the action off the Dutch coast and opens to show ‘Admiral de Winter surrendering his sword to Admiral Lord Duncan’, a scene stipple-engraved on to paper below a hand-coloured tartan decorated edging. Maritime themes and heroic verse bookend the main illustration.
Mounted on decorative bone sticks and signed ‘B. Coker, 118 Fleet Street, 1797,’ the fan sold for a mid-estimate £450.
It is a rare thing and not in the Schreiber catalogue of the collection of fans gifted to the British Museum by Lady Charlotte Schreiber in 1893, compiled from her 13 detailed notebooks.
