Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The American Trotter
'Trotting Cracks' on the Snow
Currier & Ives after Thomas Worth, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1858 · hand-coloured lithograph
What it is
Sleighs and trotting cracks race abreast over packed snow, the road-wagon match moved onto a winter track of ice and runners.
Why it matters
Thomas Worth turned the gentleman's road match into a season sport, proving Currier & Ives could sell speed in January as readily as July.
What to notice
The breath of the horses, hanging visible in the cold air.
Winter didn't slow the wager, it just changed the wheels.
Provenance
- Maker
- Currier & Ives after Thomas Worth, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1858
- Era
- The Victorian Turf (1837–1901)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- hand-coloured lithograph
- Made
- 1858
- Source
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (DT9289)
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 1.57× from the surviving 3811×2482 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.