NAM.2009-01-1-2-1

Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund vase, 1807-1808. Awarded to Maj John Hamill, Royal Regiment of Malta, for service at the Battle of Maida, 1806. Silver, made by Benjamin Smith, hallmarked London, 1807-1808. A classic Greek Volute Krater shape in three parts: the cover with a cast figure of a lion walking on a plain circular base; the shoulder with gadroon border, fruiting laurel border and scroll border on matted grounds; the main body with a repoussé florid meandering scroll frieze, on a matted ground with rope twist borders, flanked by a pair of tall vertical handles with rosette bosses and rope twist banding over a rosette terminal and a formal foliate spray, the front with a chased panel of Hercules slaying the Hydra, the verso with Britannia, seated, her raised hand supporting a figure of Victory, all over a formal band of anthemions and foliate sprigs upon the stiff leaf and acanthus chased socle foot. Associated with the Battle of Maida, Napoleonic Wars, Italy (1806).

Maida, Battle of, 1806 (Napoleonic Wars, Italy 1806)