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03
Nov 2022
Ripon auction to sell paintings of Derby winners found after 180 years
Two miniature paintings of Derby winners are to be auctioned in Ripon next month after lying unnoticed for 180 years.
The oil on metal paintings belonged to John Bowes, founder of the Bowes Museum and one of the greatest-ever racehorse owners.
They make up a set of four identically presented paintings depicting all of Mr Bowes’ Derby winners.
The other two are held by and are on view at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, and until recently art experts knew nothing about the whereabouts of the missing pair.
The two paintings show Mundig and Cotherstone, who won the Derby in 1835 and 1843 respectively.
They are being offered for sale by auction house Elstob & Elstob as part of its pictures and sculpture sale on November 30, together with a portrait of Issac Walker, who was head groomsman at the Streatlam Stud owned by Mr Bowes, who died in 1885.
Head groomsman, Issac Walker, with the two paintings.
Mr Elstob said:
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Each painting measures only 12.5cm x 13cm and are presented in horse shoe frames known as racing plates and would almost certainly have come from the Derby winners themselves.
The two paintings, together with the oil on board portrait of Issac Walker, carry a price estimate of £1,000 to £1,500.
It is not known who painted them but they are attributed to the circle of Henry Thomas Alken (1785-1851).
John Bowes and the four Derby winners
The paintings are particularly significant to the equestrian world due to John Bowes’ fame as one of the most successful racehorse owners this country has ever known.
During his career he had four Derby winners, a feat matched by only five other breeders in the history of the race and only exceeded by the Aga Khan III with five
John Bowes earned a fortune from racing, which played a major part in funding the Bowes Museum; built in an elaborate French Chateaux style to house the art collection of John and Josephine Bowes and opened to the public after their deaths in 1892.
Mundig was the first of Bowes’ hugely successful horses. He was foaled in 1832, the year that John Bowes turned 21 and indeed Mundig is German for mature or ‘of age’.
He was in the first batch of horses that Bowes sent to trainer John Scott, known as ‘the wizard of the north’, who had the Whitewall training stables at Malton, near York.
When Mundig won the 1835 Derby, he became the first northern-bred horse ever to do so, despite relatively poor odds.
Cotherstone was another outstanding champion, again trained by John Scott and ridden by his brother William Scott to victory in the 1843 Derby. He won the Two Thousand Guineas and came second in the St Leger in the same year, earning Mr Bowes more than £12,000 (£1.2 million in today’s values), and securing his position as one of the most valuable horses in the country.
Issac Walker was head groomsman at the Streatlam Stud from 1833-1872.
Mr Elstob said:
The sale will take place at Elstob & Elstob’s Ripon salerooms on November 30 at 10am, with viewing on November 29 between 10am and 7pm.
For further information, contact Rohan McCulloch on 01765 699200 or email: rohan@elstobandelstob.co.uk
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