This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/1/2026
An autograph address leaf signed “Hood” in dark ink, the integral outer leaf of a letter written from Crescent House, Greenwich, dated 20 May 180[?], addressed in his hand to “Mess.rs Baker Taylors / Bedford Street / Cov. Garden” a tailor’s firm in Covent Garden ,with notations “Received — do / Answered do” recording the correspondence. A partial red wax seal survives at the lower right. Some edge losses and toning consistent with age and postal handling; the signature and address text clear and fully legible. Good to Very Good condition overall.
The sender is almost certainly Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (1724–1816), one of the supreme naval commanders of the Age of Sail. Appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital in 1796 — a post he held until his death at age 92, Hood resided at Greenwich throughout the period suggested by the date, making Crescent House, Greenwich a natural return address. The letter to a Covent Garden tailor is entirely characteristic of the domestic correspondence of a senior officer in retirement, signed with the single, authoritative surname that was the habitual practice of the British naval peerage.
Hood’s career was among the most distinguished in the Royal Navy’s history. He served under Rodney at the Battle of the Saints in 1782, receiving the surrender of the French Admiral de Grasse; commanded the Mediterranean Fleet and directed the capture of Toulon and Corsica in 1793–94; and was the officer who first gave Horatio Nelson command of a ship of the line in January 1793 the 64-gun Agamemnon. Nelson’s celebrated verdict — that Hood was “the best Officer, take him altogether, that England has to boast of” is among the most ringing endorsements one great commander ever bestowed upon another. Documents signed by Hood are scarce on the market; signed material from his Greenwich governorship period is particularly uncommon. With One of a Kind Collectibles LOA