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Lot Essay
The 1780 Chester City Plate
W. Pick's, Turf Register, and Sportsman & Breeder's Stud-book, published in 1805, p. 402, records that at the 1780 Chester Races Mr. Hutton's Valentine beat Sir Harry Harpur's grey horse Pilot at four heats for the £50 plate. Valentine similarly defeated Mr. Clifton's Catcher, Mr. Taylor's bay horse Dalmahoy and three further horses. Mr. Howden's bay horse Buckingham fell in the third heat and Lord Grosvenor's bay horse broke down. Gabriel Smith was the son of Joseph Smith, a clockmaker of Gloverstone, Chester. He was apprenticed to his father becoming free in 1752. He served as Sheriff of the City of Chester in 1767 and was Mayor 1779/80.
Racing at Chester
It is thought that racing has taken in place in Chester since the early 16th century. The races have always been held on the Roodee, a meadow outside the city walls. The earliest known oil painting of Chester, by Peter Tillmans dating from between 1710 and 1734, depicts racing on the Roodee with the course marked my posts and spectators visible on the city walls. The painting, given to the Grosvenor Gallery by the 1st Duke of Westminster in 1894, has recently been conserved with help from the Woodmansterne Art Conservation Awards and is on display in the Grosvenor Museum. Thomas Pennant in his Tours of Wales, published in the 1770s ascribed the unusual name to a corruption of 'Rood Eye', or Island of the Cross.
Some 19th century historians cite 1511 as the first year of racing at Chester. A silk covered ball or a wooden bowl being the prize, latterly becoming a silver bell in 1539, when mayor of Chester Henry Gee (d.1545) banned a dangerous game of football held on the meadow and made the racing an official event,
as recorded in the Acts of Assembly of the Mayor and Council of Chester. ‘In the tyme of Henry Gee, Mayre of the King’s citie of Chester, in the XXXI yere of King Henry Theght, a bell of sylver, to the value of IIIs IIIId, is ordayned to be the reward of that horse which shall runne before all others.’ It is said the slang term for a racehorse, a gee-gee, derives from the mayor’s surname. The Henry Gee Stakes held today commemorate his role in the formation of racing in Chester.
There are a number of histories relating to racing at Chester in the 17th century. A manuscript, drawn up by David Rodgers. son of the Rev. Robert Rodgers, (d. 1595), archdeacon of Chester, recalls recollections of ‘Certayne collections of anchiante times, concerning the anchiante and famous cittie of Chester’, extracts of which were published in J.H. Hanshall, The Stranger in Chester, giving an accurate sketch of its Local History, Chester 1816, p. 55.
‘In A.D.1609, Mr. William Lester, mercer beinge mayor of Chester, with one
Mr Robert Amerye, ironmonger, sometime sherife of Chester (A.D.1608) he
with the assente of the mayor and cittie, at his own cost chiefly, as I conceive,
caused three silver cups of good value to be made, the whiche saide silver
cupps were, upon St. George’s daye, for ever to be thus disposed : all
gentlemen that woude bringe their horses to the Rood-dee that daye, and there
rune, that horse whiche with spede did over-rune the reste should have the
beste supe there presently delivered…’
The three cups, which had to be returned annually by the previous winners, were later said to have been melted down in 1623. The money raised was invested to provide interest which paid for the yearly purchase of a cup with the value of £8 to be kept by the victor.
The racecourse originally stretched from the Water Tower to the Castle, but in the early 1700s the present oval course took shape at about a mile in length and is now little changed. Held in the Spring, the City Plate race at Chester was also called the St George’s Plate. The meeting consisted initially of three, and from 1758 of five race days. The race itself took up a whole day, and consisted of eliminating heats, which were normally four miles, although occasionally two miles long. Heats were run until the same horse had won two out of three, four or five races. To the 18th century race-goer, stamina was considered to be more important than speed. A single race without heats was first run at Chester 1791. In the 18th century gold tumbler cups and silver punch bowls, such as the present lot, became the prizes.
The prize for the City Plate was funded by the mayor, the twenty-six trade companies, and the city assembly of Chester, usually comprising a silver punch-bowl valued at £30 to £50, accompanied by a cash sum, recorded from at least 1777 as £20. Peter Boughton, in his Catalogue of Silver in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 2000 pp. 134-140 records the whereabouts of nine examples. Two, one by Fuller White of 1762-63 for the 1763 race, and one by Hester Bateman, of 1784-85 for the 1785 race, are at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (nos. 93 and 94 respectively). Three punch-bowls, dated 1762, 1768 and 1780, the present lot, appeared at Christie’s on 4 October 1950 from the collection of the late J. T. D’Arcy Hutton Esq. (lots 126-128). Several of the Corporation of Chester punch-bowls were made by Hester Bateman and two, dated 1769 and 1770, appear to have been melted down and remade
by Thomas Heming in 1771 into a new prize in the Classical style, probably designed by Robert Adam, for the winning owner Sir Watkin Williams Wynn Bt. A City Plate punch-bowl by Hester Bateman, 1784 was sold at Sotheby’s London, 21 June 1962, lot 27, and another dated 1789 for the 1790 race, also by Bateman, was sold Christie’s New York, 27 October 1992, lot 295. A pair were exhibited at St James’s Court in 1902, both 1785, one for a 1786 race.
W. Pick's, Turf Register, and Sportsman & Breeder's Stud-book, published in 1805, p. 402, records that at the 1780 Chester Races Mr. Hutton's Valentine beat Sir Harry Harpur's grey horse Pilot at four heats for the £50 plate. Valentine similarly defeated Mr. Clifton's Catcher, Mr. Taylor's bay horse Dalmahoy and three further horses. Mr. Howden's bay horse Buckingham fell in the third heat and Lord Grosvenor's bay horse broke down. Gabriel Smith was the son of Joseph Smith, a clockmaker of Gloverstone, Chester. He was apprenticed to his father becoming free in 1752. He served as Sheriff of the City of Chester in 1767 and was Mayor 1779/80.
Racing at Chester
It is thought that racing has taken in place in Chester since the early 16th century. The races have always been held on the Roodee, a meadow outside the city walls. The earliest known oil painting of Chester, by Peter Tillmans dating from between 1710 and 1734, depicts racing on the Roodee with the course marked my posts and spectators visible on the city walls. The painting, given to the Grosvenor Gallery by the 1st Duke of Westminster in 1894, has recently been conserved with help from the Woodmansterne Art Conservation Awards and is on display in the Grosvenor Museum. Thomas Pennant in his Tours of Wales, published in the 1770s ascribed the unusual name to a corruption of 'Rood Eye', or Island of the Cross.
Some 19th century historians cite 1511 as the first year of racing at Chester. A silk covered ball or a wooden bowl being the prize, latterly becoming a silver bell in 1539, when mayor of Chester Henry Gee (d.1545) banned a dangerous game of football held on the meadow and made the racing an official event,
as recorded in the Acts of Assembly of the Mayor and Council of Chester. ‘In the tyme of Henry Gee, Mayre of the King’s citie of Chester, in the XXXI yere of King Henry Theght, a bell of sylver, to the value of IIIs IIIId, is ordayned to be the reward of that horse which shall runne before all others.’ It is said the slang term for a racehorse, a gee-gee, derives from the mayor’s surname. The Henry Gee Stakes held today commemorate his role in the formation of racing in Chester.
There are a number of histories relating to racing at Chester in the 17th century. A manuscript, drawn up by David Rodgers. son of the Rev. Robert Rodgers, (d. 1595), archdeacon of Chester, recalls recollections of ‘Certayne collections of anchiante times, concerning the anchiante and famous cittie of Chester’, extracts of which were published in J.H. Hanshall, The Stranger in Chester, giving an accurate sketch of its Local History, Chester 1816, p. 55.
‘In A.D.1609, Mr. William Lester, mercer beinge mayor of Chester, with one
Mr Robert Amerye, ironmonger, sometime sherife of Chester (A.D.1608) he
with the assente of the mayor and cittie, at his own cost chiefly, as I conceive,
caused three silver cups of good value to be made, the whiche saide silver
cupps were, upon St. George’s daye, for ever to be thus disposed : all
gentlemen that woude bringe their horses to the Rood-dee that daye, and there
rune, that horse whiche with spede did over-rune the reste should have the
beste supe there presently delivered…’
The three cups, which had to be returned annually by the previous winners, were later said to have been melted down in 1623. The money raised was invested to provide interest which paid for the yearly purchase of a cup with the value of £8 to be kept by the victor.
The racecourse originally stretched from the Water Tower to the Castle, but in the early 1700s the present oval course took shape at about a mile in length and is now little changed. Held in the Spring, the City Plate race at Chester was also called the St George’s Plate. The meeting consisted initially of three, and from 1758 of five race days. The race itself took up a whole day, and consisted of eliminating heats, which were normally four miles, although occasionally two miles long. Heats were run until the same horse had won two out of three, four or five races. To the 18th century race-goer, stamina was considered to be more important than speed. A single race without heats was first run at Chester 1791. In the 18th century gold tumbler cups and silver punch bowls, such as the present lot, became the prizes.
The prize for the City Plate was funded by the mayor, the twenty-six trade companies, and the city assembly of Chester, usually comprising a silver punch-bowl valued at £30 to £50, accompanied by a cash sum, recorded from at least 1777 as £20. Peter Boughton, in his Catalogue of Silver in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 2000 pp. 134-140 records the whereabouts of nine examples. Two, one by Fuller White of 1762-63 for the 1763 race, and one by Hester Bateman, of 1784-85 for the 1785 race, are at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (nos. 93 and 94 respectively). Three punch-bowls, dated 1762, 1768 and 1780, the present lot, appeared at Christie’s on 4 October 1950 from the collection of the late J. T. D’Arcy Hutton Esq. (lots 126-128). Several of the Corporation of Chester punch-bowls were made by Hester Bateman and two, dated 1769 and 1770, appear to have been melted down and remade
by Thomas Heming in 1771 into a new prize in the Classical style, probably designed by Robert Adam, for the winning owner Sir Watkin Williams Wynn Bt. A City Plate punch-bowl by Hester Bateman, 1784 was sold at Sotheby’s London, 21 June 1962, lot 27, and another dated 1789 for the 1790 race, also by Bateman, was sold Christie’s New York, 27 October 1992, lot 295. A pair were exhibited at St James’s Court in 1902, both 1785, one for a 1786 race.