The Jockeys and the Champions’ Record · The Jockeys
Lester Reiff, 'Lester' (Vanity Fair)
Leslie Ward ('Spy'), chromolithograph, Vanity Fair, 1900 · chromolithograph
What it is
Lester Reiff, drawn full-length in silks, one of the American jockeys whose seat unsettled the English weighing room at the turn of the century.
Why it matters
The Reiff brothers arrived already schooled in the crouched, high-stirrup style American riders had worked out before it reached England, and Lester was the elder name that opened the door his younger brother walked through after him.
What to notice
the crouch itself, higher in the iron and lower over the withers than the upright English seat Spy had been drawing for decades before Reiff crossed the Atlantic.
A seat can cross an ocean faster than a reputation.
Provenance
- Maker
- Leslie Ward ('Spy'), chromolithograph, Vanity Fair, 1900
- Era
- The Victorian Turf (1837–1901)
- Chapter
- The Names on the Board
- Medium
- chromolithograph
- Made
- 1900
- Figure
- Lester Reiff
- Source
- Yale Center for British Art (B1979.14.266)
Publicity
Clear — the historic British turf (the Victorian jockeys, the Vanity Fair subjects): a long-deceased figure with no post-mortem right of publicity in play. Sold as history, freely and openly.
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 3× from the surviving 1139×1920 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
The Jockey — Fred Archer
The Champion at Stride
Sam Loates (Vanity Fair)
Mr Arthur Coventry, 'The Baby' (Vanity Fair)
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.