Sotheby’s puts 168 of Nelson’s own letters on show in Bond Street before sale

Admiral Lord Nelson’s letters will be on show at Sotheby’s on Bond Street from 21 to 28 October 2026, before the whole archive is sold. They range from accounts of his battles to private notes to Emma Hamilton.

The display opens on Trafalgar Day, the anniversary of the 1805 battle in which Nelson was killed. Visitors can go in on weekdays between 9am and 4.30pm. There is no weekend opening.

What is in the Nelson letters collection

The archive is made up of 415 items connected with Nelson, from letters to manuscripts. The collector and philanthropist Clive Richards built it up over four decades and died in 2021. Sotheby’s calls it the greatest collection of Nelson papers held privately today. It says nobody has gathered as many of his letters since the Victorian collector Alfred Morrison.

Nelson wrote 168 of the letters himself. Recipients range from fellow naval officers and politicians to his own family. Others went to Emma Hamilton, his lover. The earliest episodes covered include Bastia and Cape St Vincent. Later letters deal with the Nile and Copenhagen, and Trafalgar is there too.

Several were written once he was blind in one eye. Others show him teaching himself to write left-handed after his right arm was amputated, and the injuries are visible in the handwriting. In one letter he says he has “not the hand of a ready writer”.

Sotheby’s sealed-bid auction estimate

All 415 items will go to one buyer. Bids will be sealed, and the archive is offered as a single lot, which Sotheby’s values at between £4m and £6m. The proceeds will go to a charitable foundation that supports education, healthcare, heritage and the arts.