A UNION JACK FLOWN FROM HMS SPARTIATE AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, OCTOBER 21, 1805 UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,068,500
A Union Jack flag from the Battle of Trafalgar will come up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London on July 1 with an estimate of £500,000-800,000. One of the most spectacular and consequential naval victories in history, The Battle of Trafalgar ended the threat of an invasion of Britain by Napoleon, setting the scene for a century or more of British dominance of the seas. The flag shows signs of battle damage. Analysis by the Zaricor Flag Collection – from which it is being offered for sale – revealed shards of metal embedded in the fabric in several places, notably in the half-moon shaped loss to one edge, suggesting that this is the ‘footprint’ of a cannon ball. Fragments of wood splinters were also found throughout.
It is one of only three intact Union Jacks known to survive from the Battle of Trafalgar. It has been offered on the market just once before in its 220 year history, having been preserved by Captain James Clephan R .N . (1768-1851) who was the Spartiate‘s second lieutenant and then passed by descent until it was acquired in 2009 by Benjamin Reed Zaricor (1947-2022) for the Zaricor Flag Collection. The design was introduced in 1801 after the Act of Union with Ireland. HMS Spartiate fought at the Battle of Trafalgar under Francis Laforey. With Minotaur, she forced the surrender of the Spanish ship Neptuno, of 80 guns. She was was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line captured from the French at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.
