Shell-shaped dish, part of a breakfast service that belonged to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). The dish is painted in full colour and gilt. In the centre is Nelson's full coat of arms within the motto 'TRIA JUNCTA IN UNO' (three joined in one) complete with supporters. Below, his personal motto 'PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT' (let he who earned it bear the palm), above, the chelengk and 'SAN JOSEF' crests with his motto 'FAITH AND WORKS'. The arms are surmounted by a Viscount's and a Duke's coronet. Two Naval gold medals and the Order of St. Ferdinand are suspended below. The dish has a border of oak leaves and acorns with a gilt moulded grip at the hinge end of the shell. In the inventory of the contents of his house at Merton, sold by Lady Hamilton in 1809, a dessert and tea service of this pattern is referred to as the 'Nelson Set'. The Nelson coat of arms with its motto 'Tria juncta in uno' was granted to the family in 1664. When he was created a Knight of the Bath in 1797, Nelson chose his own supporters, a sailor holding the broad pennant on a staff trampling on a Spanish flag and a British lion tearing the Spanish flag to tatters. His crest was the stern of the 'San Josef' and his motto 'Faith and works'. On 20 November 1798 he was granted the following augmentations: a ship, palm tree and disabled fort in chief, an additional crest of a chelengk on a naval crown and the motto 'Palmam qui meruit ferat'. The sailor acquired a palm branch and a French flag was placed in the mouth of the lion. Nelson Baron's coronet was exchanged for that of a Viscount in 1801.