Nightingale’s Lamp set to Shine at Hansons
A brass desk lamp formerly used by Florence Nightingale is set to be sold at Hansons in June.
The lamp, which it’s believed the nurse may have used when later recording her experiences of the Crimean War, was given as a gift to two sisters who worked as servants for the Nightingale family at Lea Hurst, near Matlock, Derbyshire.
Dating back to around 1840, the 10-inch tall lamp will go under the hammer at Hansons on June 26th.
After her experiences in the war, Nightingale returned to Derbyshire, where she had spent her childhood, in the 1850s. She wrote of what she had seen in the conflict in her 1859 book, Notes on Nursing, which many consider to have shaped the nursing profession.
During the war she became known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ following to a report in The Times investigating her challenging work in the war zone.
The lamp from her Derbyshire home was passed down through generations of the Lea Hurst servants’ family.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson said, “The lamp is quite remarkable. It has a wonderful provenance, which confirms it helped ignite Florence and her writings late into many a Derbyshire night.” He continued, “Such an iconic object and it’s association with such a leading lady will be guided at £1000-2000. With interest and competition it may just ignite, since it is such a wonderful object.”