Lot 65: Herbert H. St John Jones of Nantwich (British, fl.1905-1923)

Champion Tandem Team, Hopwood Spark and Hopwood Horace,
signed and dated 1907, inscribed verso, oil on canvas,
25 x 51 cm.

DURING the first quarter of the 20th century Herbert St. John Jones, an artist in both watercolour and oils, was an animal painter with a reputation for excellence throughout the United Kingdom.

He was born about 1870 and lived in Nantwich until he died in 1939.

In 1956, a local newspaper recorded: "As a boy, Herbert St. John Jones would sketch on any scrap of paper he could find and spend hours watching the 'hunting gentlemen' who visited the Brine Baths Hotel. Nantwich was then the centre of the hunting world and the boy Jones learned to love horses and hounds. He studied them in every detail, their finer points and temperament. He grew to know them all by name and many of his later portraits were drawn from memory at his Hospital Street Studio".

Hopwood Spark and Hopwood Horace were International and Richmond winners at Tandem horse racing.