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Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the piece could look; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.
Two Medieval Knights in Heraldic Trappers, Spanish Cavalry Lithograph, 1861
€365
$410 · £310
Original print, not a reproduction.
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1861
- Technique
- Tinted lithograph
- Coloring
- Hand colored
- Condition
- Good. Good condition for its age. Mounted on a cloth covered board. Light toning to the sheet with a few small spots in the sky. Please review the images for further condition details.
- Collection
- Knights & armor
- Era
- 1816 to 1899, Empire and industry
- Stock no.
- BG-14341-6
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Two mounted knights meet on open ground in this hand colored lithograph from the Album de la Caballería Española, published in Madrid in 1861. On the left a knight in mail and a closed great helm crested with red and white plumes sits a bay horse caparisoned in white, a lance with a pennon over his shoulder and a long shield at his back. On the right a second knight in a yellow great helm reins in a prancing dark horse whose trapper is worked in yellow with black lions and red and white bars, the same arms repeated on his shield, with a striped pennon on his lance. A walled town with pointed spires rises in the haze behind them.
The stone is signed "Villegas" at lower left, and the margin is lettered "Villegas dibujó y litografió." (Villegas drew and lithographed it) at left and "Lit. Militar S. Bernardino 7 Madrid." at right, the military lithographic press in the Calle de San Bernardino that printed the album. The plate carries no title of its own.
The Album de la Caballería Española was the work of Serafín María de Sotto, Count of Clonard, the leading Spanish military historian of his day. It traces the dress and arms of the Spanish cavalry from its earliest centuries to the reign of Isabel II in a long series of oblong plates drawn and lithographed by Villegas, each printed with a tint stone and colored by hand. The medieval plates, with their heraldic horse trappings and closed helms, are among the most decorative in the series.
The coloring is fresh and confident: strong yellow and red in the trappings, soft blue in the sky and warm earth tones in the ground, all held within a rounded double ruled border. It is a striking piece of Spanish military and heraldic imagery, and a natural companion to other plates from the album, to prints of arms and armor, or to a collection of equestrian subjects.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Mounted on a cloth covered board. Light toning to the sheet with a few small spots in the sky. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
