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RACE HORSES : PEDIGREE, DESCRIPTION, HISTORY.

Drawings by V. J. COTLISON  +  L. PENICAULT  +  LE NAIL

 

published by John C. Nimmo. [ London : 1890 ]

from the book by S. Touchstone:    

  

[ History of Celebrated English and French Thorough-Bred Stallions and French Mares which Appeared on the Turf from 1764 to 1887. ] ---  A beautiful compendium of English and French horses from the 18th and 19th centuries. Containing sixty hand-colored plates by Cotlison, Penicaut, and Nail the book's the print run was limited to 520 copies. The plates were produced in order to preform: "a service to breeders, constituting an authentic document of the history of the thorough-bred horse, from his début down to the present day." "The breeding of thorough-breds is a very costly amusement, and in order to induce breeders to produce the animals required, it is imperative to offer them some substantial inducements and to stimulate their emulation. This is the object of racing, which admits of their covering part at all events of the enormous expenses which they have to meet, while the pleasure of seeing their horses first  past the post is very gratifying to their amour-propre." This full-page chromolithographic plate is by either V.J. Cotlison, L. Pénicaut, and Le Nail. Each print comes with a description of the horse, many of the desptions of these horses have full color vignettes.