The events of the medieval style jousting tournament celebrating the great age of chivalry at Eglinton Castle on August 30, 1839 are described and depicted in a series of eight lithographs. According to Ian Anstruther, author of The Knight and the Umbrella. An Account of the Eglinton Tournament - 1839 (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1963), it was held by the Earl of Eglinton in protest of the disappearance of traditional ceremony. The Earl's stepfather, who had lost his job with the ascension of the Whig party, encouraged the Earl to hold the tournament at Ayrshire, his Gothic style country house. The "Queen of Beauty" oversaw the tournament, the jousters dressed as knights in armor, a jester in costume entertained, and the attendees dressed in elaborate period clothing. The Earl assumed huge costs to hold the tournament, including the construction of a Grand Pavilion and spectator stands and a banquet and ball following the tournament.

The images show a view of the tournament grounds, jousting, the arrival of the queen, the ball, and other occurrences. The prints are bound as a book, preceded by a four-page account of the tournament.

Edward Henry Corbould was the youngest generation of a British family of artists, which included his father Henry (1787-1844), uncle George (1786-1846) and grandfather Richard (1757-1831). A painter, illustrator and briefly a sculptor, he studied at the Royal Academy and showed more wide-ranging interests than his father or uncle. He won gold medals for his watercolors and sculpture from the Society of Arts in 1834 and 1835 and won the competition to decorate the New Palace of Westminster with his painting Plague of London in 1849. In 1842, Prince Albert purchased Corbould's Woman Taken in Adultery (British Royal Collection), and he was appointed Instructor of Historical Painting to the Royal Family from 1851 to about 1871. During this time period, he also illustrated works by Spenser, Scott and Milton. After Corbould's contract with the royal family was terminated, he returned to exhibiting at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, supporting himself largely by means of book illustration and by designing for the Illustrated London News and other magazines.

Day & Haghe was the most prominent early Victorian lithographic printing firm. William Day (1797-1845) and Louis Haghe (1806-1895) opened their business in London in 1829, and the quality of their work was rewarded by their appointment as Lithographers to King William IV and then to his successor Queen Victoria. Haghe transferred the images to stone, and Day printed them. They produced maritime prints, hunting scenes, topographical views and genre subjects as well as notable illustrated books, including George Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio (1844). After Day's death, the firm became known as Day & Son from 1852, and were early practitioners of the techniques of color-printed lithography.

References:

Coakley, Frances. "Five Lithographic Views on the Isle of Man." Manx Notebook. 2001. http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/views/fivelith/ (28 May 2003).

"Edward Henry Corbould." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0194/T019430.asp (28 May 2003).

Peters, Greg and Connie. "Day & Hague." Art of the Print. http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/1_artoftheprint_publishershistory2.htm#Day_and_Haghe (28 May 2003).