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Artist or Maker: John Frederick Herring, Sen. (British, 1795-1865)
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Provenance: Captain C.G. Reid Walker, J.P.; Christie's, London, 1 May 1959, lot 57 (1,300 guineas to Gooden & Fox).
H.J. Joel; Christie's, London, 13 July 1984, lot 22, where purchased by the present owner.
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF RHONDA ROLAND SHEARER
The Doncaster Cup was founded in 1766, and is the oldest genuinely continuous horse race in Britain. The cup was donated for many years by the Stewards of Doncaster Racecourse and the trophy was the grandest object offered as a racing prize until the Victorian period when the cups offered at Ascot and Goodwood were made to match it in splendour and value.
The 1835 race was on Thursday 17th September with a field of five horses. General Chassé was favorite at 6/5 on with Hornsea at 2/1 and 3/1 for Touchstone. This race, however, established that Touchstone was actually best. Hornsea had been 2nd only two days before to Queen of Trumps in the St. Leger and both the placed horses were of very good quality. The trophy in 1835 was a gold candelabra which had cost 300 guineas.
Touchstone was one of the most famous English racehorses of the 19th Century. Foaled in 1831, by Camel of Banter, he won the 1834 St. Leger, the Ascot Gold Cup of 1836 and 1837, the Doncaster Gold Cup of 1835 and 1836 and was later champion stallion four times between 1842 and 1855. He sired three Derby winners but the line was eventually continued by his St. Leger winner Newminster and still exists. Touchstone was owned and bred by Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster. Herring painted Touchstone several times and an engraving was executed in 1834 upon the St. Leger victory (O. Beckett, J.F. Herring & Sons, London, 1981, pp. 105, 180, 154).
Camel was a very good racehorse but not a real champion. However, he was an even better stallion and champion sire in 1838. He was mated again with Banter six times from 1836 to 1842 and in 1837 they produced a second St. Leger winner for the 1st Marquess of Westminster in the 1840 winner Launcelot (see lot 8). Banter had seventeen foals before she died in 1849. She had been foaled in 1826 and was by Master Henry out of Boadicea by Alexander. Bred by Lord Westminster in 1826 (when he was Earl Grosvenor rather than a marquess) she won him two races at three years old, her only season to race. When he died in 1845 she passed to his younger son, Lord Grosvenor.
William Scott (1797-1848) was one of the foremost jockeys of his generation, and, it was said, if not the best, the most honest. He won the St. Leger nine times (including a run of four wins from 1838-1841), the Derby four times and the Oaks on three occasions.
Herring moved to the Yorkshire racing center of Doncaster in 1814 at the age of 19, possibly to see the running of the Great St. Leger of that year. He started out working for a coach-painter in that town but quickly established himself independently with commissions for horse portraits from the local gentry. In 1816 he began with Duchess to paint the winners of the St. Leger. An early patron was the Hon. Edward Petre of Stapleton Park, a successful racehorse owner, who won a number of Classic races. In a joint venture with the Doncaster Gazette, Herring annually sketched each St. Leger winner and these were later published as a successful series of color prints. He also painted designs for the Gazette for engraved portraits of prominent collectors such as Charles Spencer-Stanhope and Frank Hawkesworth who commissioned portraits of their racehorses at Doncaster, Epsom and Newmarket.
He exhibited his first work at the Royal Academy in 1818 and by 1820 he had become a professional artist. He later moved to Newmarket to be closer to his patrons and then by 1833 lived in Camberwell where he ran into some financial difficulties. These problems were solved with the assistance of W.T. Copeland who commissioned Herring to produce designs of foxhunting scenes to be used on Copeland Spode porcelain. These designs proved to be very successful, and by the 1850s he was patronized by Queen Victoria, Ferdinand, duc d'Orleans and the Duchess of Kent.
Herring painted a number of works depicting major races at Doncaster, including Preparing to Start for the Doncaster Gold Cup, 1825 (Christie's, London, 13 July 1984, lot 21); two versions of the Finish of the Doncaster Gold Cup of 1826 (Doncaster Art Gallery, see O. Beckett, J. F. Herring & Sons, 1981, p. 99, no. 33; and Paul Mellon Collection) and Start of St. Leger 1828 (op. cit., p. 100, no. 45).
