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Framed and on the wall
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Spanish Cuirassier and Light Cavalryman, Villegas, Hand Colored Lithograph, 1861
£310
$410 · €365
Original print, not a reproduction.
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1861
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Coloring
- Hand colored
- Condition
- Good. Good condition for its age. Mounted on a cloth covered board. Light toning to the sheet with a small spot in the sky. Please review the images for further condition details.
- Wardrobe
- Menswear
- Era
- 1840 to 1870, Crinoline
- Stock no.
- BG-14341-2
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.
An original hand colored lithograph of two Spanish cavalrymen riding across open country, drawn on the stone and lithographed by Villegas and printed in Madrid in 1861. The lower margin is lettered "Villegas dibujó y litografió" at left and "Lit. Militar S. Bernardino 7. Madrid" at right, and the artist's signature appears again within the image at lower left.
On the left a cuirassier sits a gray horse at a walk. He wears a steel helmet with brass fittings and a tall red plume, a polished breastplate over a dark blue coat with gold epaulettes and a collar numbered 2, red trousers and high boots, with a white valise strapped behind the saddle and a blue and yellow saddle cloth. On the right a light cavalryman on a bay horse wears a blue jacket closed with rows of black frogging, a white crossbelt, red trousers and a blue shako with a red band, a horn badge and a blue plume; a carbine hangs at his right side and a wooden fence closes the view behind him.
The plate belongs to the Album de la Caballería Española, the illustrated history of the Spanish cavalry compiled by Serafín María de Sotto, Count of Clonard, and published in Madrid in 1861 with hand colored lithographs drawn by Villegas and printed at the military lithographic press in the Calle de San Bernardino. The album follows the mounted arm of Spain from its earliest days to the reign of Isabel II, showing troopers and officers in the dress, arms and horse furniture of their regiments.
The coloring is laid on by hand over the printed image in clear watercolor, with the blues, reds and gilt of the uniforms picked out carefully against the soft sandy ground, and the composition is enclosed in a ruled frame with rounded corners. Plates of this series are far scarcer than French and German costume prints of the same years, and a single plate holds its own in a study or library.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Mounted on a cloth covered board. Light toning to the sheet with a small spot 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.













