Lot 63: R.W. Folkard (fl. 1831-1844)

Mariner, winner of the Swaffham Cup, 1834, in a landscape signed and dated 'R.W. Folkard Pinx. 1834' (lower right) oil on canvas 231/4 x 281/2 in. (59.1 x 72.4 cm.) PROVENANCE Lord Stradbroke.with Ruskin Gallery, Ltd., Stratford-on-Avon. LITERATURE M.A. Wingfield, A Dictionary of Sporting Artists, Suffolk, 1992, p. 104. NOTES In 1776, organised match-coursing began with the foundation of the Swaffham Coursing Society in Norfolk by Horatio, 2nd Earl of Orford. Orford, a keen sportsman, crossbred greyhounds with several other breeds, including the bulldog, in pursuit of greater stamina. The new sport grew at a phenomenal rate and was to cover the whole country by the end of the century. An old label on the reverse gives the pedigree of Mariner as by Ambiguity out of Mouse. Folkard, a provincial sporting painter from Suffolk, was at one time an assistant in the studio of Abraham Cooper.