The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, awarded to Vice Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Military Division, Grand Cross Breast Star, as awarded to Vice Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, G.C.B.
in silver, gold and enamels, of conventional form as revised in 1815, with hinged gold brooch-pin for suspension, the backplate engraved RUNDELL BRIDGE & RUNDELL JEWELLERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES, His Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT, AND THE ROYAL FAMILY, height 91.7mm, width 85.7mm, each of the two Ts in motto lacking a serif, extremely fine, in original red morocco fitted case; together with K.B. Grant of Arms and Statutes
(lot 2) the auction Sotheby's £3,000-5,000
Vice Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats's Grant of Arms
(included in lot 2)
K.B.: London Gazette: 15 October 1808:
‘The King has been pleased to nominate Rear-Admiral Richard
Goodwin Keats to be one of the Knights Companions of the Most
Honourable Order of the Bath.’
G.C.B.: London Gazette: 4 January 1815.
Offered with the lot are:
(i) Sir Richard Keats’s Grant of Arms, circa 1809, 188 x 178mm, painted and gilt on vellum (see illustration on opposite page); the reverse with indistinct pencil annotations and sketch, and also an ink manuscript note of Keats’s revised motto: Mi Patria Es Mi Norte
(ii) Keats’s personal copy of the Statutes of the Order of the Bath, London, 1812, 4to, viii+77pp, in red velvet binding, inscribed on title page and flyleaf, also with paper seal, ribbon and signature of Fras Town􀆃end (Wind􀆃or Herald)
See also lot 5 for Sir Richard Keats’s watch, given to him by H.R.H.
The Prince Edward in 1790. ADMIRAL SIR RICHARD KEATS also received a Captain’s Naval Gold Medal and a Ј100 Patriotic Fund Vase for the significant part he played at the Battle of St Domingo in February, 1806. A detailed study of Keats’s career and his relationship with Horatio Nelson will be found elsewhere in this catalogue, and the circumstances under which he came to own Nelson’s K.B. star are examined in the footnote to the preceding lot.