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:
“It is remarkable that these paintings have finally come to light.
“They have come forward from a client in Matlock, Derbyshire, who has had them in the family for as long as can be remembered.
“The family originated from Weardale in County Durham – close to the Bowes Museum – and the client remembers them hanging in his grandparents’ cottage in the village of Howden le Wear. His grandfather was friendly with Issac Walker’s family, which may explain how the paintings came to be in their hands.”
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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:
“These paintings represent a snapshot of one of the most remarkable success stories in racing history and, together with the links to the renowned collection of art in the Bowes Museum, we are expecting them to attract worldwide interest from equestrian enthusiasts and art collectors alike.”
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
Derby Day and Ripon’s royal connection to the world’s greatest horserace
Away from the the sights and sounds of the platinum jubilee celebrations across the Harrogate district, it’s a fitting day to remember another royal connection from the Ripon area that goes directly to the Queen, via her great great grandmother, Queen Victoria.
It was Derby Day on Epsom Downs and the world’s most famous race grabbed national and international attention, with the easy winner and 5-2 favourite, Desert Crown, trained by Sir Michael, destined to earn a fortune at stud.
On the boundary wall at the Parish Church of St Lawrence in Aldfield — between Ripon and Fountains Abbey — there is a blue plaque recognising that William Powell Frith, the world-renowned painter, whose signature work was called The Derby Day was born in the tiny village on November 2, 1819.
A portrait of William Powell Frith as a young man. Picture: Mary Evans Picture Gallery
His mother Jane, was house steward to Sophia Lawrence of Studley Royal, before the family moved to Harrogate in 1826 to manage the Dragon Hotel.
Nine years later, at the age of 16, Frith decided to take his prodigious artistic talent to London, telling his family that his aim was to make his fortune.
This was no misplaced boast, as he was entered into the Royal Academy and earned the accolade of being one of Queen Victoria’s favourite painters.
The Queen, who is Victoria’s great great grandaughter, has never won the Classic race as either owner or breeder and the nearest she came was in her coronation year , when her horse Aureole finished second in the 1953 running.
Dreams of a fairy-tale win in platinum jubilee year were dashed when her horse Reach for the Moon was withdrawn from today’s race by joint trainers John and Thady Gosden, after the three-year-old colt suffered a training setback.
For only the third time in her 70-year reign, the 96-year-old Queen is also a ‘non-runner’ at Epsom today, with ongoing health issues meaning she will be watching the race on television.
Frith, who lived to the age of 89, died in 1909 assured that his Derby Day work created between 1856 and 1858 had earned him the fortune that he predicted.
His classic painting and other celebrated works – have put him forever in the frame as one of the world’s best known artists
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