Books and Manuscripts

(Newdegate, C.N.)
Sketches from the Washington Races in October 1840 by An Eye Witness
(London, ca. 1840). Comprising three fine hand-colored lithographic plates by and after Newdegate; printed text below each image; loose as issued; each sheet measuring 15 x 22 1/8 in. (381 x 562 mm). Original oatmeal printed paper folder, foxed; in black fall-down-back box. 

A lovely copy of this rare suite of hand-colored lithographs, depicting the course of a race, with black jockeys, run at Washington race course, Charleston, South Carolina, in October, 1840. Each plate with explanatory rhymed quatrains printed below image. 

The Washington Race Course was established in 1735 and until its sale in 1900 was the oldest race track in the world. The South Carolina Jockey Club Spring and Fall race meetings were one of the highlights of the Charleston season. The first day's races were run in four, the second in three, and the third in two-mile heats. On the disbanding of the Club, the piers from the entrance of the Washington Race Course were given to Belmont Park, New York, where they still stand today.

Scarce to auction.