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| New sign |
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| Old sign #1 |
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| Old sign #2 |
I can be a little unobservant at times. Because it's so high above street level, I hadn't taken a close look at the new sign for
The Nelson (formerly the Lord Nelson Inn) in Topsham; and nor had I noticed that the old ones are in the courtyard behind.
It's interesting to compare influences and styles. The old sign #1 is distinctly a piece of naive art; the old sign #2 is a rather stylised but more realistic portrait; and the new sign, reflecting the formal name change to The Nelson, is a very polished photorealistic depiction (anecdotally, I gather it was done by a Dutch graphics firm).
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| Old sign #2 / 1800 Heinrich Füger portrait (detail) |
The old sign #2 (above) is closely based on
Heinrich Füger's 1800 portrait, currently in the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.
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| Old sign #1 / Beechey portrait (detail) |
The old sign #1 (above) looks to have based the uniform on one of the
William Beechey portraits, with the face similar to that of the Heinrich Füger.
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| New sign / 1799 Abbott portrait (detail) |
The new sign (above) is quite closely modelled on the 1799
Lemuel Francis Abbott portrait, currently in the Greenwich Hospital Collection (
see Wikipedia). It slightly embellishes Nelson's uniform with the red sash from the Beechey depictions.
- Ray
