Symbolic female figure representing Freedom, releasing a dove, 1803 (watercolour, ivory, gilt, glass)

Creator: unknown An oval pendant in watercolour on ivory, in a gilt metal oval suspension frame of the sort used for miniatures, which opens by a hinge at the top. The reverse of the frame is glazed and the inscription ' "FREEDOM" / E.H. to H.N. 1803' is inscribed within it, apparently on the reverse of the ivory or on a separate thin sheet. The image shows a lady in a white gown and bare-headed, in an Italianate garden or graveyard setting. A pavilion with columns and a cupola is in the right background, cypress trees to its left. In front in the left middle ground is a funerary monument with an oval inscription tablet, (the text represented only by lines), on top of which sits a birdcage with the door open. Another tree frames the left foreground. The lady, who is turned to viewer's right, is setting free a dove, (a symbol of love), which is flying upwards away from her hands as she releases it. This piece self-evidently purports to be a gift from Emma Hamilton to her lover, Nelson, and the woman shown has some likeness to Emma. The authority for the claim, however, requires further research. None the less, the allusions are blatantly to the burden lifted from the two lovers by the death of Emma's husband, Sir William Hamilton, in 1803, thus ending their scandalous 'ménage à trois'.