Colorists’ Models for the rare colored issue of ‘Cherished Portraits’

[Cherished Portraits of Thoroughbred Horses, from the Collection of William Woodward. Colorists’ Models].

[New York: Privately Printed by Eugene V. Connett, 3d, at the Derrydale Press, 1929].

Price: $5,000.00


About the item

Models for Connett’s edition of 21 copies with hand colored plates. Comprising 35 [of 68] engraved plates, proofs after letters, after the original paintings by Stubbs, Herring, Hall, Sartorius, and others, colored by hand, most marked “Approved WW” in ink or pencil in margins, with occasional notes to the colorists. 1 vols. 7 x 10 inches. Colorists’ Models for the rare colored issue of ‘Cherished Portraits’. Loose sheets. Custom red half morocco clamshell box. For published book: Podeschi 373; Siegel 22; Frazier V-4-D; Decade p. 67. Provenance: Eugene V. Connett, 3d; Don Frazier.

Item #260683

“This was Connett's first major work in fine book production. It was contracted through Ernest Gee, and Mr. Woodward spared no expense …” (Siegel, p. 52). The idea had come to Mr. Woodward, whose Belair Stables bred some of the greatest racehorses of the 1920s and 1930s, to do a book about the portraits he owned after listening to Mr. Vosburgh regale him with stories about them one Sunday afternoon. The portraits include Stubbs’ ‘Godolphin Arabian’ and a vast stable of paintings by Herring Senior, racing scenes, and other works.
“The twenty-one copy edition of Cherished Portraits of Thoroughbred Horses is one of the rarest works of its kind in America. … It was Connett’s most amibitious project, and if produced today would easily cost several thousand dollars per copy” (Siegel, p. 174).

Unique survival of the production process for one of the great American sporting books of the interwar years, and a testament to Woodward’s close involvement with the book.