Lot 1416
‡AFTER `SNAFFLES` (1884-1967)
THE FINEST VIEW IN EUROPE; THE WORST VIEW IN EUROPE
The pair, offset lithographs, with hand colouring, each on support sheet with printed remarque (left handed fence cutter, First Aid man at race course respectively), the former with blindstamp, each signed in pencil
Images each 26 x 56cm. approx. (2)
* These celebrated images, described by John Welcome and Rupert Collens in `Snaffles On Racing and Point-to-Pointing` (London, 1988) as `two of the most famous sporting prints produced this century` span a period of about eleven years from 1914-1925.
`The Finest View..` (first published c.1914) looks across the Spratton Vale towards Brixworth in Leicestershire and exists in several variations. The earliest version shows the rider's gloved hands holding a whip whilst a variant produced for `Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News` in November 1920 omits most of the hounds and shows a second rider ahead but on the left. Only the grey's rider's right knuckle can be seen holding a whip. Later editions from c.1925 removed the rider's hands and showed progressively less of the horse's neck. The horse itself is believed to be `Rifle Brigade`, in truth a bay rather than a grey. The dispersal of the trees varies between images and the huntsman is shown in different positions with hounds in different places too. Even the remarques vary with the hedger holding his brush hook in different hands. This lot is apparently version 3 of 4, post 1920.
`The Worst View..` was inspired by the 1901 Grand National at Aintree but dates from c.1922. It shows the eventual winner Arthur Nightingall on Grudon approaching the notorious Bechers Brook during a race that was notable for its squally blizzards and two inches of hazardous snow on the ground. The hapless jockey who has just taken a nasty fall and the riderless grey to Nightingall's right hint at the severe perils that lie ahead. A variant of this subject shows a crowd beyond rails to the left and a different arrangement of the three horses but the treacherous snowfall is not apparent in either subject.
