Spanish Cavalry Troopers in Bearskin Cap and Crested Helmet, Villegas, 1861

This hand colored lithograph shows two Spanish cavalrymen of an earlier era facing each other on an open sandy plain. On the left a trooper on a dun horse wears a yellow coat with a blue collar, white breeches and tall black boots, with a towering black bearskin cap topped by a red plume; his saddle cloth is edged in red and he turns in the saddle with one hand on his thigh. On the right a cuirassier on a dappled gray horse wears a crested helmet with a long black horsehair mane and a steel breastplate over a red coat, and holds a long straight weapon upright at his shoulder; a rolled cloak and a red pouch are strapped behind his saddle. The scene sits inside a double ruled border with rounded corners, and the artist's signature, Villegas, is drawn in the lower left corner of the image.

Below the border the plate is lettered "Villegas dibujó y litografió" at left, meaning drawn and lithographed by Villegas, and "Lit. Militar S. Bernardino 7. Madrid." at right, the imprint of the military lithographic press in Madrid. The central caption that names the regiment and reign lies beneath the window mount.

The plate comes from the Álbum de la Caballería Española, published in Madrid in 1861 under the direction of Lieutenant General Serafín María de Sotto, Count of Clonard, the leading historian of the Spanish army. The album follows the dress and equipment of the Spanish cavalry from the Middle Ages to the reign of Isabel II, reign by reign and regiment by regiment, and its plates were drawn on stone by Villegas and printed at the Litografía Militar in Madrid. Each sheet was printed over a warm tint and then colored by hand, which gives the uniforms their clear, saturated color against the pale sandy ground.

Spanish military costume plates appear far less often on the market than their French and German counterparts, and the Clonard album remains one of the principal records of its kind. It is a handsome plate that pairs naturally with others from the same album.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.