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Since 1763 the name 'Russborough' has been synonymous with collecting and dealing in fine art. In the closing decades of the last century the historic town of Port Hope has become home to Lord Russborough's Annex, which specialises in an individual mix of antique maps, paintings and prints.

While Lord Russborough's Annex features a great many works of museum calibre, we also offer a wonderful selection of prints priced at under $100.

First steeple chase on record

An extract of our prints currently available:

First Steeplechase on record

First steeplechase 1 First Steeplechase2
First steeplechase 3 Firste steplechase 4

John Harris III after Henry Alken

The First Steeplechase on Record

Original hand coloured Aquatints. 4 plates 2nd edn.  Published by Ben Brooks at his Eclipse Sporting Gallery 1839.   Glazed, black-wood frames
13 1/8 x 14 1/2" inc. letters ( 33.3 x 36.8 cm. ) Fr.15 1/2 x 19 1/8"

Ref.SW9 (166) /RNN/ d.ands> SNN  PRICE CODE D

Lettered above image with title, below image with an excerpt from 'The Sporting Review', No1. January 1839, beginning "In the centre stood the grey champion,....",

Set of 4 plates:'The First Steeple-Chace on Record. Night Riders of Nacton.
1) Ipswich, the Watering-place behind the Barracks.
2) The Large Field near Bile's Corner.
3) The last Field near Nacton Heath.
4) Nacton Church and Village.'

These plates were first published by R. Ackerman illustrate a horse race by night. Each of the jockeys is dressed in nightgown and cap. Beautifully atmospheric plates. Rare as a set. As with most copies of this set of prints that come on the market, there are some toning issues.

Henry Alken 1785-1851 was an English painter and engraver chiefly known as a caricaturist and illustrator of sporting subjects and coaching scenes. His most prolific period of painting and drawing occurred between 1816 and 1831 when he produced many sets of etchings of sporting subjects mostly coloured and sometimes humorous in character. Early in his career, he painted sporting subjects under the name of "Ben Tally-O". Alken explored the comic side of riding and satirized the foibles of aristocrats, much in the tradition of other early 19th century caricaturists.

Alken, known as an avid sportsman, is best remembered for his hunting prints, many of which he engraved himself until the late 1830s. He created prints for the leading sporting print sellers such as S. and J. Fuller, Thomas McLean, and Rudolph Ackermann.