Spanish Cavalry, Two Horsemen in Cocked Hats, One with a Lance, Villegas, 1861

This hand colored lithograph shows two Spanish cavalrymen of the eighteenth century crossing rough open ground scattered with stones and tufts of grass. On the left a rider on a dun horse walks forward in a black cocked hat with a red cockade, a long pale buff coat with light blue facings and cuffs, and tall black boots; his blue saddle cloth is edged in a lighter trim and a holster hangs at the pommel. On the right a second rider, seen from behind, gallops away on a dappled gray horse; he wears a cocked hat, a blue coat with red cuffs and a yellow shoulder cord, a cross belt, and carries a long lance upright, with a rolled cloak strapped behind his saddle. The scene is framed by a double ruled border with rounded corners, and the artist's signature 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 naming 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.