Two Spanish Cavalry Officers in Tricorn Hats, Villegas Lithograph, Madrid, 1861

An original hand colored lithograph of two Spanish cavalry officers on horseback, from the Album de la Caballeria Espanola, the illustrated history of the Spanish cavalry compiled by Serafin Maria de Sotto, Count of Clonard, and published in Madrid in 1861.

In the foreground an officer in a red coat with blue cuffs and a black tricorn hat, edged in silver, rides a dark gray horse at a walk and points forward with his drawn sword. Behind him a second officer in a buff coat faced with red, also in a tricorn, follows on a bay horse, its forelegs raised in a high trotting step. The dress, with its long skirted coats, heavy boots and broad saddlecloths, is that of the eighteenth century, and the pair stand on open sandy ground with tufts of grass and scattered stones, under a pale sky.

The plate is lettered in the lower margin "Villegas dibujó y litografió", that is, drawn and lithographed by Villegas, who also signed the stone in the lower left corner of the image, and on the right "Lit. Militar S. Bernardino 7. Madrid", the military lithographic press in the Calle de San Bernardino that printed the whole work. The figures are not captioned on the plate itself; in the album each lithograph is explained in the accompanying text.

Sotto's album traced the Spanish mounted arm from the Middle Ages to his own day, reign by reign and regiment by regiment, in a long series of lithographs drawn and put on the stone by Villegas and colored by hand. The coloring here is bright and careful, with strong reds and buffs against the soft printed tint of the ground and sky.

Spanish military costume plates of this period are far less often seen than their French and German counterparts, and they appeal equally to collectors of military history, uniforms and equestrian art. The sheet is presented on a cloth covered mount and would suit a study, a library or a room with an equestrian theme.

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