text: The brass lamp is being sold at auction in June by auctioneers Hansons (above with model in period costume) A brass desk lamp used by Florence Nightingale as she wrote about her nursing experiences in the Crimean War is to be sold at auction. It 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 10in tall lamp will go under the hammer at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on June 26. 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 with her 1859 Notes on Nursing still considered as having shaped the profession today. During the war she became known as The Lady with the Lamp thanks to a report in The Times. She had been sent to Selimiye Barracks in Scutari, now Istanbul, in 1854 to care for soldiers. She pleaded with the British newspaper to appeal to the Government for better working conditions having been horrified by the squalor and disease fighters faced. The result was Renkioi Hospital, a civilian facility built in England and shipped to the area to care for those who had been hurt. It was there Nightingale earned her nickname, carrying a lamp as she completed rounds of the hospital's patients through the night. The lamp from her Derbyshire home was passed down through generations of the Lea Hurst servants' family. Auctineer 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. '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.' Florence Nightingale penned nursing notes at her Derbyshire home after returning from the Crimean War .
target: A brass lamp from the nurse's Derbyshire home is to go under the hammer .
  She is thought to have used it to write nursing notes after Crimean War .
  Lamp was passed on to servants and handed down through generations .
  It will be sold by Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on June 26 .