Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The American Trotter
'Trotting Cracks' at the Forge
Currier & Ives after Thomas Worth, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1869 · hand-coloured lithograph
What it is
A string of trotting cracks pulled up at a country forge, the smith's lamp lighting the road horses while their drivers wait out a shoe.
Why it matters
Thomas Worth built a second act for Currier & Ives beyond the winner's sheet — the road-wagon set as a fraternity, its ritual stops as much the subject as the speed.
What to notice
The steam off a horse's flank in the cold air, close by the forge fire.
Even the fastest road needs a blacksmith.
Provenance
- Maker
- Currier & Ives after Thomas Worth, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1869
- Era
- The Victorian Turf (1837–1901)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- hand-coloured lithograph
- Made
- 1869
- Source
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (DP215192)
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 1.53× from the surviving 3919×2782 scan by AI enhancement (Claid smart-enhance), prepared for the considered detail of a print viewed at distance. The source record above is unchanged — the enhancement serves the wall, not the archive.
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the work’s own year of publication. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-20.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 24x36" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
More from the Stable Wall
Steeplechasing — The Start
‘Elis’, Winner of the St Leger, 1836
Fores’s National Sports — The Run In
The Trotting Mare Nancy Hanks
Elsewhere in the family
- The Links — the other morning religion.
- Painted Lineage — the bloodline, beside the family line.
- Painted Earth — home ground as a period map.