1850 – Voltiguer

This truly exceptional full page image comes to us from the June 1st, 1850 edition of the “Illustrated London News”. Voltiguer was the racehorse of the day, having won both the Epsom Derby and the St.Leger in 1850. He was a sired by the celebrated “Voltaire”, himself a successful racehorse and winner of the Doncaster Cup in 1829. What is particularly special about this image is that it is one of only a very few collaborative illustrations done by Weir in conjunction with another artist, in this case, his younger brother-in-law, the 20 year old Benjamin Herring. Herring was the younger brother of Harrison’s wife Ann. He was also a new recruit to the staff of the Illustrated London News and no doubt was put under the wing of Harrison Weir to learn his craft of drawing specifically for the wood engraving process. This piece is masterful in that it combines two totally differing styles in perfect harmony. It would seem likely that the detailed pieces were predominantly the work of Herring and that the illustrative framing and scenes from the races, were drawn by Weir, to bring the whole together. We have provided details showing both their initials and signatures (alternated) in two parts of the full page imagery. Benjamin went on to have a successful career as a Sporting illustrator, and many fine examples of his work can be found in the pages of the “Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News”. Wonderful detail allows us to bring this to you in options of A4, A3 and A2 sizing and we are working on a super sized A1 for the not too distant future.