{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O136480"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136480/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV6529/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV6529/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BV6529","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O136480/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O136480","accessionNumber":"SD.17","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Two armed figures on horseback, probably Mamluks","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Henry Alken had probably never seen a Mamluk, yet this did not matter to his customers. What they wanted was an attractive illustration of renowned warrior horsemen and their noble animals. It is difficult to understand now, in the age of the internal combustion engine, the sheer pervasiveness of nineteenth century hippomania. Sporting print shops were common, their stock largely consisting of all manner of horse portraits, pictures of jockeys, famous horsemen, hunters, in fact anything to do with horses at all. Alken was an artist and printmaker who first published his prints under the pseudonym `Ben Tally Ho!' and went on to become perhaps the best known maker of sporting prints. Portraits of horses and horsemen were more valued than other more conventional portraits. For example, a coloured engraving after a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence sold for about £2; a set of eight sporting prints after Alken by the same printmaker cost £50, an enormous sum in the nineteenth century.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Alken, Henry Thomas","id":"A19550"},"association":{"text":"painter","id":"x36959"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pencil and watercolour, on paper watermarked J WHATMAN  TURKEY MILL 1826","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Orientalism","id":"x31272"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BV6529"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"SCX","shelf":"6","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1826-1830","earliest":"1826-01-01","latest":"1830-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"21.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"27.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Signed Alken","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"According to Rodney Searight: `Bt fr Maas Gallery, April 1968, £45'.","historicalContext":"There is no biographical evidence to suggest that Alken travelled to the Near East.","briefDescription":"Watercolour, Two armed figures on horseback, probably Mamluks, by Henry Thomas Alken, about 1828","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Briony Llewllyn , `The Orient Observed', 1989, p.14"},{"reference":{"text":"Searight, Rodney and Scarce, Jennifer M., <i>A Middle Eastern journey : artists on their travels from the collection of Rodney Searight,</i> Talbot Rice Art Centre, 1980","id":"AUTH351213"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Searight, Rodney. <i>The Middle East : watercolours and drawings by British and foreign artists and travellers, 1750-1900, from the collection of Rodney Searight, Esq.</i> London, 1971","id":"AUTH351220"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"horses","id":"x34864"},{"text":"figures","id":"AAT189808"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["SD.17"],"accessionNumberNum":"17","accessionNumberPrefix":"SD","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2007-06-21","availableToBook":false}}