Alken, Herring, and the Fores’s Plates
The Sporting Print
The hunt and the chase, printed for every hall in the county.
The aquatint era printed sporting England at full, reckless stretch: Alken’s riders over hedges by moonlight, Herring’s classic-winner portraits repeated for decades because the formula was correct, and the Fores firm’s great mid-century series — the print-shop window’s pride, restored to museum grade. THE STRING set gathers three matched plates.
1839–1870 · Britain
Sold as a set
These plates hang as a string, not as single sheets — the collection is sold whole.
Steeplechasing — The Start
The field away over the first — Alken’s sporting England at full, reckless stretch.
‘Elis’, Winner of the St Leger, 1836
The champion in his loose box — Herring’s formula, repeated for decades because it was correct.
Fores’s National Sports — The Run In
The great mid-century sporting series at the finish — restored to museum grade.
Matilda, the winner of the Great St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster, 1827
Reeve's engraving after Herring carries Matilda's Doncaster win into the print-shop window, mane flat in the run-in.
The Belvoir Hunt, Full Cry
The Belvoir strung out in full cry, Alken catching horses flat and low over the shires grass.
The Belvoir Hunt, Jumping into and out of a Lane
Horses drop into a sunken lane and scramble out, Alken relishing the awkward geometry of a real hunting country.
The Belvoir Hunt, The Death
The run ends and the horses blow, Alken closing the Belvoir sequence with hounds baying at the kill.
Steeplechasers Jumping a Fence
Alken freezes the steeplechasers at the top of a fence, forelegs tucked and turf flying behind.
Two Steeplechasers Clearing a Wall, with Two Steeplechasers in the Middle Distance
Two steeplechasers rise at a stone wall with two more coming on behind, Alken's country hard and unforgiving.
Five Steeplechasers, with a River in the Middle Distance and a Red Flag on the Horizon
Five steeplechasers race a red flag on the skyline, Alken driving them across country toward a distant river.
Three Steeplechasers Clearing a Ditch
Three steeplechasers stretch over a ditch, Alken pinning the exact instant before the landing.
The Belvoir Hunt, The Meet
The field gathers for the Belvoir at the meet, Alken laying out horse, hound and hard frost in one cold morning.
Doncaster St. Leger - The Start
The St Leger field breaks at Doncaster in Alken's aquatint, a wall of silks let loose at the flag.
Extraordinary Steeple-Chase
Alken's comic-heroic steeplechase, horses and riders flung at every hazard the shires can offer.
Doncaster St. Leger - The Finish
Alken brings the St Leger home at Doncaster, the leaders drawing clear as the crowd rises along the rail.