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Sporting Art, Horses, Polo, Ivester-Lloyd, 3 Antique Prints, 1912

$2,100

Thomas Ivester-Lloyd (1873-1942)
Play from a Throw In
A Run by the Whites
Goal!

Fores’s, London: June 3, 1912
Chromolithographs
Signed in matrix lower right: Ivester Lloyd
11 x 18 inches, image, average approximate
16.5 x 23 inches, overall, average approximate
$2,100, set of 3

Three prints of key moments in the progression of a polo match played between two teams, one dressed in red and the other in white. Each conveys the competitive intensity and action of the game starting with the players leaning in to reach for the Play from a Throw In. In A Run by the Whites, the riders gallop down the field as one member of the white team prepares to raise his mallet to strike the ball. In Goal!, the white team’s run ends with the ball rolling through the goal as the players cheer. Each is set on grassy polo turf with trees in the background and is rendered in a naturalistic style, with attention to accurate rendering of the horses’ anatomy and form in motion. These three prints were originally issued as a set of four that also included A Tussle for the Ball.

Description

Thomas Ivester-Lloyd was a British sporting artist known for his hunting scenes, hound and horse portraits, and other equestrian subjects in oil and watercolor. He was born in Liverpool and served with the British Army in the Remount Service during World War I and was later commissioned into the British Artillery. Little is known of his life before the war, but clearly he had already embarked on an art career; in 1912 the British sporting publisher Fores published a series of polo prints made after his paintings. The War Office British Empire Exhibition in Wembley contained 30 dioramas that he painted of battles in British history. An avid rider, beagler and hunter, he served as Master of the Sherington Foot Beagles in Sherington, England, where he lived for most of his life. He also illustrated numerous books, including the British section of Sir John Buchanan Jardine’s Hounds of the World, books on hunting and beagling, and children’s books by his son John Ivester-Lloyd.

Fores was an English print publisher and printseller founded in London in 1783 by Samuel William Fores (1761-1838) and continued by his heirs for 200 years. S.W. Fores specialized in caricature prints. After his death in 1838, his sons George Thomas Fores (1806-1858) and Arthur Blücher Fores (1814-1883) took over as Messrs. Fores Sporting and Fine Print Repository, changing the focus largely to horse sporting subjects including riding, hunting, racing, steeple chase, polo, and coaching. Messrs. Fores published works by the foremost British horse and equestrian artists of the day, including Alken, Pollard, Sartorius and J.F. Herring, Sr. They also published Fores’s Sporting Notes and Sketches, a quarterly magazine. Descendants of George Thomas Fores continued to run the company until well into the 20th century. The remaining stock of the firm was acquired in the early 21st century by Stephen Ling of Brackley, Northamptonshire.

Full publication information: “Published June 3rd 1912 by Mess’rs Fores. 41 Picadilly. London. W.” Each titled in matrix, lower left.

References:

“Sale 9864. Lot 326.” Christie’s. 10 June 2004. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/after-thomas-ivester-lloyd-goal-a-tussle-4311671-details.aspx?intObjectID=4311671 (24 December 2014).

“S.W. Fores (biographical details).” The British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=124910 (15 October 2013).

“Thomas Ivester-Lloyd.” Jane Badger Books. http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/illustrators/tilloyd.html (24 December 2014).

“Thomas Ivester Lloyd.” Sherington Historical Society. 28 December 2006. http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/shhs/tilloyd.htm (24 December 2014).

Additional information

Century

20th Century