F.L. Wilder's Catalogue of English Sporting Prints. No.20.

At this time of year the need to garden conflicts with any wishes I have to write a Sporting Art Note. But I have another task (entirely self-inflicted) which is to 'edit' the F.L. Wilder Archive that has recently been given to the British Sporting Art Trust (BSAT) by the late Mr Wilder's friend and business partner, Hildegard Fritz-Denneville. This task is far more interesting than gardening, so I devote my mornings to it and garden in the afternoon (if it is dry!).

F.L. Wilder, known as 'Tim' to many, died on the 1st of September 1993 in his 101st year. He joined the fine art auctioneers Sotheby, Wilkinson, Hodge, as they were then named, in 1911. Serving briefly in the First World War (in which two older brothers lost their lives), he became disabled by severe rheumatic fever. Returning to Sotheby's he remained with them until retirement in 1976. His prime interest was in prints. He published, with a younger brother, Print Prices Current from 1918 to 1939. He also published How to Identify Prints in 1969, and the now familiar picture book, English Sporting Prints in 1974. His other interests ranged from Rembrandt's etchings to discovering previously unrecognised oil sketches by John Constable.

In the 1920s the print market was at its height with remarkable prices being paid for good impressions, particularly of mezzotints. However, it was in some respects a false market and it collapsed as quickly as it had grown. Frank Siltzer published The Story of British Sporting Prints in 1925, and a limited edition in larger format followed in 1929. The 1929 edition has been, and still is, the main source document for those interested in sporting prints. The book is part anecdotal accounts of the artists and part catalogue of prints after their work. Wonderful as it is, Siltzer depended almost entirely on his own observation of prints that, quite naturally, left some gaps and a few mistakes. Wilder decided (I am not sure when) to replace Siltzer's book with a magnus opus of his own: A Catalogue of English Sporting Prints. Among much other valuable archive material given to the BSAT is Wilder's copy of Siltzer. Every page is covered with minute pencil corrections and additions. Perhaps running out of room for further comment in the pages of Siltzer, Wilder decided to compile his own catalogue?

This was an immense undertaking. The late Mr Fores said that he found it was impossible to catalogue all the work of one artist, Henry Alken Snr., let alone all sporting artists (although there were none more prolific than Alken). Wilder was well placed at Sotheby's, cataloguing and researching (among many other tasks) the sporting and decorative prints that passed through the auction house. I remember visiting him in his small office - hardly bigger than a broom cupboard, and his kindness in answering my questions about the engravers of sporting aquatints in whom I was interested. While he seemed to be extraordinarily busy, there was always time to help others. I was then working in London, and it was Wilder who introduced me to Dudley Snelgrove who was cataloguing the Paul Mellon Collection of Sporting and Animal Prints. Dudley Snelgrove worked in an upstairs room in Dover Street and he invited me to eat my lunchtime sandwiches with him on a number of occasions. At that time, he was working on the Duke of Gloucester's collection of prints (mainly hunting, after Alken) that Mr Mellon had bought from the Duke in 1956. The collection was housed in twelve leather-bound, crested, elephant folios of prints in pristine condition, some with the original watercolours from which they were engraved on facing pages. It was glorious to see the colours of Alken's First Steeple Chase on Record so well interpreted by John Harris in the engravings (aquatints) that had a plum-like bloom in their dark areas.

Wilder's catalogue covers all the usual fieldsports, racing, equestrian portraits, as well as cricket, pugilism, pedestrianism and many other traditional country sports and pastimes. It comprises about 3,000 loose sheets of varying size from foolscap to narrow slip of paper: most are typescript, a few manuscript. These pieces of paper are catalogued alphabetically and chronologically by artist (for Henry Alken there are over 300 sheets), a few containing the details of a single print, others cover a complete series or set. Also included are the names of those artists who had their work illustrated in The Sporting Magazine, New Sporting Magazine, The Sportsman and The Sporting Review. In all, I have listed 1,000 names of artists!

Sadly, Wilder's life-long ambition to replace Siltzer with his own published catalogue of sporting prints is unfulfilled, and without serious outside sponsorship (since the material is not yet in publishable form) this could not be contemplated by the BSAT. Added to this is the fact that current interest in the subject is small, and any financial return on outlay would be minuscule. However, it is an immensely valuable archive that will shortly be housed in the BSAT's reference library at Newmarket, where it can be consulted. Back to the garden!