Wednesday 10 December 2008

Lambert's Leap. Note 14

Not having described the criteria for what would or would not appear in these Notes and Queries, I feel a little less guilty than perhaps I should in introducing an account of the print "Lambert's Leap". This Note also allows me to write a little about the artist, engraver and publisher, Robert Pollard, who recorded this extraordinary accident. Before I begin, I must acknowledge the late N.C.(Bobby) Selway whose interest in and knowledge of the Pollard family was second-to-none, and of James Pollard in particular. His research led to the publication of three books: The Regency Road (1957), James Pollard (1965), and The Golden Age of Coaching and Sport (1972). The last two books were published by the eccentric Frank Lewis of Leigh-on-Sea, whose by-line included that he was publisher "by Appointment to the late Queen Mary." While many others have written about the Pollards, Bobby Selway was pre-eminent in describing and recording the activities of this artistic family.

The mezzotint Lambert's Leap (25 x 17.75 inches) appeared in Dominic Winter's recent sale (3 December) that included Old Master Drawings and Prints. Lambert's Leap is hardly an Old Master, but its early date (1786) allowed its inclusion. Due to its date it preceded eleven far more distinguished lots after George Stubbs (the reason for my viewing the sale): Two Tygers; Phillis, a Pointer of Lord Clermont; The Spanish Pointer; A French Fox Dog; Gimcrack (mezzo); Brood Mares (very serene); Gamekeepers and Labourers; Sweet William; Stallion and Mare; Pumpkin; and another Gimcrack (stipple, printed in reverse having been copied from the mezzo). They were published between 1788 and 1796. Jumping forward to the early twentieth century, there was also a nice group of etchings by the naturalist artist, C.F. Tunnicliffe (1901-1979).

Lambert's Leap shows a horse that has shed its rider - or more accurately, a rider who has shed his horse. The legend beneath the plate relates:

"The accident above represented happened some time ago to Mr Cuthbert Lambert of Newcastle upon Tyne, whose horse, as he was endeavouring to turn him, at full speed, across Sandiford Stone Bridge, leapt the battlement & fell about 20 feet to the bed of the Water. The Horse died in consequence of the Fall, but the young Gentleman was providentially caught in the Branches of an old Ash, where he hung by his Hands, till some Passenger got him down safely. The place has been ever since call'd Lambert's Leap, and the name engaven on the Battlement to commemorate the Fact."

More information can be gleaned from the smaller (11 x 9 inches) lithographic example illustrated in Maggs, Rare Books, website. The incident apparently occurred in the Heaton district of Newcastle on 20 September 1759. Cuthbert Lambert, described as a dashing young Customs Officer, allowed his nameless mount to leap over the parapet falling into a ravine beneath the bridge. While doing so, Lambert grabbed two convenient branches and is shown suspended as his horse, legs tucked neatly beneath its body, falls away to the river bed below. While the description on the mezzotint speaks of Lambert "endeavouring to turn his horse, at full speed", it has also been suggested that the rider was "trying to impress the young ladies of the parish out strolling." There is certainly one such, bonneted, peering anxiously over the parapet.

The author of this remarkable scene is Robert Pollard, born in nearby Newcastle just four years before the accident. As a boy, he may often have heard the story and perhaps gone to the spot and saw "Lambert's Leap" "cut in the coping stone of the battlement". The bridge has long since been replaced, but the inscription remains.

Robert Pollard came to London from Newcastle in 1774. He had been apprenticed to a silversmith but soon became a pupil of the artist Richard Wilson who taught him to draw and paint. Later, he was taught etching by Isaac Taylor before establishing himself as an engraver and publisher at 15 Braynes Row, Spa Field, Islington in 1781. Robert spent many of his early years in London engraving. The first plate published from Braynes Row was of The Dogger Bank after the marine artist Dominic Serres. Lambert's Leap comes during a fairly bare period for Robert as either an engraver or publisher. Apart from engraving two sporting dogs after Sawrey Gilpin in 1788, Robert's many subsequent works in this field were not published until the early 1800s. From 1810 until shortly before his death in 1838, Robert devoted much of his time to publishing and to teaching his younger son, James Pollard (1792-1867), engraving before the youth turned almost exclusively to painting to earn his living.

The mezzotint of Lambert's Leap was engraved by Philip Dawe (b.1750), a painter and engraver of portraits and decorative subjects. In his Artists of the English School, Samuel Redgrave describes Dawe's pictures as "common and vulgar in their humour"! Philip had two sons: George Dawe RA (1781-1829) and Henry Edward Dawe (1790-1848) who also painted and engraved. George Dawe was the better known as a history and portrait painter. He amassed a vast fortune during time spent in Russia but then lost much of it "by his greed as a money-lender, which was followed by litigation and losses" - Redgrave. The smaller lithograph, or possibly soft-ground etching, was drawn by William P. Sherlock, a little-known painter and engraver of the early to mid-nineteenth century. He was also the son of an equally obscure engraver, William Sherlock, whose father was a Dublin prizefighter.

The print at Dominic Winter's sale (estimate £150-£200), which may have appeared at Christie's earlier this year, sold for £120. The low price for this 'interesting' scene (the horse staggered a few paces before expiring) may reflect the comparatively unattractive subject. It was also trimmed to the image, further diminishing its value. However, such anecdotal records are unusual and were printed in small numbers, so need to be cherished. I hope this one found an understanding home. Who knows, it may even outlive the coping stone inscription that could end up in a rockery far from Newcastle!

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