Set of Four 19th Century English Framed Hunt Trophy Lithographs
Set of Four 19th Century English Framed Hunt Trophy Lithographs
This striking set of four late 19th-century English lithographs, published by Raphael Tuck & Sons and illustrated by the famed Helena Maguire, captures the quieter, more solemn poetry of the hunt’s conclusion. Here the subjects do not soar or scatter. Instead, they hang—hare, pheasants, capercaillie, and mallards—suspended just as they would be at day’s end outside a country lodge.
Maguire renders each animal with remarkable delicacy: the sweep of a pheasant’s tail, the weight of a hare’s body, the layered plumage of a mallard draped from a game hook. Set against spare backgrounds, the compositions feel almost sculptural—part sporting tradition, part Victorian still life.
Printed before 1893, prior to Raphael House receiving its Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria, these works survive as rare ambassadors of a lost archive. The factory and its original artwork was destroyed during the Blitz of December 29, 1940.
Today, they read as both record and ritual, an honest portrait of the sporting life.
EACH: 15 in. W x 1 in. D x 27 in. H