Head-and-shoulders, torso Coade-stone bust of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, sitting on its own base.

It shows Nelson facing forward, his neatly brushed hair worn medium long and parted in the centre, and with a queue tied with a ribbon at the neck. He is shown in full-dress uniform as a rear-admiral, wearing the ribands of the order of the Bath and St Ferdinand, the stars of the Crescent (above), St Ferdinand and the Bath (below), and two Naval gold medals from the neck for St Vincent and the Nile. Below the stars a third medal suspended from a ribbon bow is similar to the Naval gold medal but probably intended to represent the Nile medal privately issued by Alexander Davison, Nelson's agent.

The empty right sleeve is pinned across the bottom, the lower edge forming the front of the base, with the anchors on the two buttons on the cuff worn horizontally as in the Thaller and Ranson bust (SCU0088).

The piece is hollow moulded, with a square hollow support pillar at the back and two large firing holes below the rear of the shoulders. It previously had a bronzed finish and was received with minor damages, the sitter's-left side of the uniform collar being missing from an old break.

This is one of four known busts of this type in Eleanor Coade's famous artificial stone (a form of extremely durable fired ceramic) made at the Coade and Seeley works, Lambeth, London. The head of this item has been restored after substantial accidental damage in 1984 but parts missing (the left collar) or detached (the cuff buttons) when it was acquired have not so far been replaced.