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Artist or Maker: JOHN FREDERICK HERRING, SEN. (BRITISH, 1795-1865)
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Provenance: Commissioned by Sir Mark Wood, Bt., 1833.
C.V. Whitney.
Mrs E. Whitney Tippett, Upperville, Virginia.
Mr and Mrs Jack R. Dick Sale, Sotheby's, London, 31 October 1973, lot 15.
with Richard Green, London.
Sir Charles Clore.
with Richard Green, London, from whom purchased by the present owner in 1990.
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Literature: T.H. Taunton, Portraits of Celebrated Racehorses, London, 1888, vol. III, pp. 135-7.
T.H. Taunton, Famous Horses, London, 1895, p. 173.
O. Beckett, J.F. Herring and Sons, London, 1981, p. 102, no. 60, pl. 7.
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Notes: Vespa was foaled in 1830 by Muley out of Miss Wasp. She was the winner of The Oaks in 1833 with J. Chapple up: and in 1834 she won the Oatlands Handicap at the Newmarket Craven Meeting with J. Chapple up; The Kings Plate at the Newmarket First Spring Meeting, The Jockey Club Plate, Newmarket and His Majesty's Plate, Chelmsford with Robinson up. In 1834 Vespa was sold to Count Hunyady of Hungary.
Sir Mark Wood, 2nd Baronet, of Gatton Park, Surrey and Llanthony Abbey in Monmouthshire, was a leading owner in the 1830s. He was born in 1794 and succeeded to the baronetcy, which had been crated in 1808, on the death of his father in 1829. The Wood family had originally come from Perth where they seemed to have been involved in shipping or perhaps foreign trade (the family arms include a ship in full sail and supporters of uniformed sailors).
Another version of this picture was sold at Christie's, London, 11 July 1986, lot 25C.
