Horse standing in stable room with man holding cigar in left corner of room aside horse.
Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, 1876 Hand-colored lithograph Currier & Ives profited from the horse and harness racing craze by selling images of famous races and horses to the American public. The firm commissioned artists to create portraits of famous horses like Rysdyk’s Hambletonian (1849-1876) or Hambletonian 10. Hambletonian, an American trotting horse and the forefather of the standardbred horse breed, is shown here in a rare interior setting with his owner, William Rysdyk. The stallion was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame as it profoundly influenced the sport with its reputation for speed. Rysdyk made a modest fortune betting on the races and later had Hambletonian studded and he sired approximately 1,331 foals. The lineage of nearly all American trotters and pacers can be traced to one or more of four prominent Hambletonian sons: George Wilkes, Dictator, Happy Medium, and Electioneer. Artist Louis Maurer worked for eight years as a lithographer for Currier and Ives, earning a beginning salary of five dollars a week. He became known for his prints of trotting horses and for the famous series The Life of a Fireman.
