![HERRING, John Frederick (1795-1865). Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, from the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. Doncaster: Sheardown and Son & London: W. Sams, [1824].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_11343_0151_001(herring_john_frederick_portraits_of_the_winning_horses_of_the_great_st062615).jpg?w=1)
![HERRING, John Frederick (1795-1865). Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, from the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. Doncaster: Sheardown and Son & London: W. Sams, [1824].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_11343_0151_002(herring_john_frederick_portraits_of_the_winning_horses_of_the_great_st062635).jpg?w=1)
![HERRING, John Frederick (1795-1865). Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, from the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. Doncaster: Sheardown and Son & London: W. Sams, [1824].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_11343_0151_003(herring_john_frederick_portraits_of_the_winning_horses_of_the_great_st062654).jpg?w=1)
![HERRING, John Frederick (1795-1865). Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, from the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. Doncaster: Sheardown and Son & London: W. Sams, [1824].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_11343_0151_000(herring_john_frederick_portraits_of_the_winning_horses_of_the_great_st124249).jpg?w=1)
Details
HERRING, John Frederick (1795-1865). Portraits of the Winning Horses of the Great St. Leger Stakes, at Doncaster, from the year 1815 to the present year inclusive. Doncaster: Sheardown and Son & London: W. Sams, [1824].
Large 2° ((618 x 430mm). 10 deckle-edged, hand-coloured aquatint horse portraits by T. Sutherland after Herring, With letterpress title, 1-leaf list of subscribers, 1-leaf list of winners, 10 leaves of descriptive text to the plates, and tissue guards. Letterpress advertisement for continuation of the book, dated Gazette Office, Doncaster, 19 September 1825, on front pastedown. (Title slightly soiled, title and two text leaves with closed tear through blank area, some light spotting to text, short 10mm. tear to margin of final plate.) Publisher's red straight-grained half morocco and marbled boards, original letterpress title label on front cover reprising the Doncaster imprint (staining and light rubbing to covers); modern red buckram box. Provenance: Dukes of Manchester, Kimbolton Castle (shelf label on front pastedown) -- purchased from Robinson, London, 15 February 1936.
THE UNOBTAINABLE ORIGINAL ISSUE, PUBLISHED FIVE YEARS BEFORE THE LONDON EDITION, CONTAINING THE EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS OF THE PLATES HERE IN THE FINEST STATE. S. and J. Fuller of London purchased the plates in 1827, and continued to publish, periodically, the St. Leger winner series up to 1845, re-lettering the plates with their own imprint. Herring must have watched his first St. Ledger in 1814 when he took the Royal Leeds Union stage from London to Doncaster. While lodging in the town he took a coach builder's finishing shop and and from that obtained the vacant post of coachman to the Nelson inn. He followed this arduous profession for six years, ending up on the box of the prestigious High Flyer plying between York and London. In his leisure time he played the clarinet, composed music, and continued to paint. His first exhibit at the Royal Academy was A Dog in 1818. But the scheme that made him a household name found its expression in this extraordinarily rare book, to which Pierce Egan was one of the subscribers. The Doncaster Gazette arranged for him to paint the winners of the St Leger from 1815 onwards. The pictures were then engraved and published first by Messrs Sheardown & Son, owners of the Gazette. Subsequently S. and J. Fuller, and then Baily Bros. brought out more plates. so that in all, he was to paint thirty-four winners, thirty-one of which became prints. The first issue of the first ten plates which launched his career must be considered EXCESSIVELY RARE IN BOOK FORM. The plates are watermarked J. Whatman 1823 or 1824. Mellon/Snelgrove Herring 2 (also in publisher's marbled boards); Tooley 261 (mentioning but not describing the first issue); Siltzer p. 14 (mentioning publication in wrappers).
Large 2° ((618 x 430mm). 10 deckle-edged, hand-coloured aquatint horse portraits by T. Sutherland after Herring, With letterpress title, 1-leaf list of subscribers, 1-leaf list of winners, 10 leaves of descriptive text to the plates, and tissue guards. Letterpress advertisement for continuation of the book, dated Gazette Office, Doncaster, 19 September 1825, on front pastedown. (Title slightly soiled, title and two text leaves with closed tear through blank area, some light spotting to text, short 10mm. tear to margin of final plate.) Publisher's red straight-grained half morocco and marbled boards, original letterpress title label on front cover reprising the Doncaster imprint (staining and light rubbing to covers); modern red buckram box. Provenance: Dukes of Manchester, Kimbolton Castle (shelf label on front pastedown) -- purchased from Robinson, London, 15 February 1936.
THE UNOBTAINABLE ORIGINAL ISSUE, PUBLISHED FIVE YEARS BEFORE THE LONDON EDITION, CONTAINING THE EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS OF THE PLATES HERE IN THE FINEST STATE. S. and J. Fuller of London purchased the plates in 1827, and continued to publish, periodically, the St. Leger winner series up to 1845, re-lettering the plates with their own imprint. Herring must have watched his first St. Ledger in 1814 when he took the Royal Leeds Union stage from London to Doncaster. While lodging in the town he took a coach builder's finishing shop and and from that obtained the vacant post of coachman to the Nelson inn. He followed this arduous profession for six years, ending up on the box of the prestigious High Flyer plying between York and London. In his leisure time he played the clarinet, composed music, and continued to paint. His first exhibit at the Royal Academy was A Dog in 1818. But the scheme that made him a household name found its expression in this extraordinarily rare book, to which Pierce Egan was one of the subscribers. The Doncaster Gazette arranged for him to paint the winners of the St Leger from 1815 onwards. The pictures were then engraved and published first by Messrs Sheardown & Son, owners of the Gazette. Subsequently S. and J. Fuller, and then Baily Bros. brought out more plates. so that in all, he was to paint thirty-four winners, thirty-one of which became prints. The first issue of the first ten plates which launched his career must be considered EXCESSIVELY RARE IN BOOK FORM. The plates are watermarked J. Whatman 1823 or 1824. Mellon/Snelgrove Herring 2 (also in publisher's marbled boards); Tooley 261 (mentioning but not describing the first issue); Siltzer p. 14 (mentioning publication in wrappers).
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