Summer Fine Auction 2023

25 June 2024 | 9.30 AM BST

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The skill of a fine bronze, the wonder of the American West and an extrovert sculptor

Lot-291.jpg

Lot 291 , Walter Winans (St. Petersburg, 1852-Parsloe Park, Essex, 1920), a cast bronze of the artist, as a cowboy, riding the Arab stallion Skowronek

Lot 291

Walter Winans (St. Petersburg, 1852-Parsloe Park, Essex, 1920) – A cast bronze of the artist, as a cowboy, riding the Arab stallion Skowronek

Estimate: £7,000 - £10,000

The front cover lot for this Summer sale catalogue in many ways represents the wonderful nature of the varied lots on offer and the often remarkable background to their creation and use over the years.

The sculptor Walter Winans was born to American parents in St Peterburg, Russia in 1852. At the age of 18 he took the oath of allegiance and moved to Kent, England to take up residence. Author of numerous books on pistol and rifle shooting he competed at in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics winning gold and silver medals for shooting. He has a range at the National Shooting Centre, Bisley named after him and his caricature "The Record Revolver Shot" by Spy was published in Vanity Fair in 1893.

Aside from writing and shooting he was a foremost exhibitor of heavy harness horses in the English and Continental shows and entered his famous light steppers at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden, 1910.

He held hunting and shooting rights over nearly 250,000 acres in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1884 a failed prosecution over grazing rights led to the establishment of the right to roam which was a key element in opening British parklands to the public.

Alongside these endeavours he was also a sculptor with his main focus being subjects drawn from the American ‘Wild’ West such as Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok. This bronze is a self-portrait as a cowboy riding his favourite horse. At the age of 68 he collapsed and died while driving his horse, Henrietta Guy, in a trotting race at Parsloes Park, Essex, active to the end.

A remarkable man but the horse depicted is arguably of more significance. Walter Winans bought Skowronek (Skylark in Polish) from Count Josef Potocki’s Antoniny Stud in Poland and later sold him to Webb Wares, who used him as a hack, and eventually sold him to Henry Musgrave Clark, of the Court House Farm stud, near Lewes, where he was shown and used at stud for the first time, coming to the attention of Judith, Lady Wentworth, daughter of Lady Anne Blunt and Wilfred Scawen Blunt, founders of the Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park stud.

Although Count Potocki found Skowronek unimpressive as a colt, having sold him to Winans for £150, the grey went on to be a spectacular stallion and was named ‘’Horse of the Century’’.

Lady Wentworth reputedly turned down an offer of $250,000 from the Tersk Stud, in Russia, and boasted that she once received a cable ‘’from the Antipodes’’ addressed to ‘’Skowronek, England’’! The outcross of the original Crabbet stock with Skowronek was extremely successful, and Skowronek's offspring not only sold throughout England but were exported to Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Spain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Skowronek produced 46 foals. 39 of these were named, and 27 appear in American Arabian pedigrees.

Thus we bring together the skill of a fine bronze, the wonder of the American West and an extrovert sculptor merging with an Arabian horse of significant bloodline in the US. Discovered by Philip Taylor just along the road from our saleroom in Lewes and now on sale at Gorringe’s.

That’s what gets us out of bed in the mornings and keen to go out and ‘find’ the next sales’ lots. It’s a pleasure to work with such pieces and I hope that you take the same enjoyment from viewing the myriad of goods on offer in this Summer sale.

Clifford