HORSE RACING - A Coalport trophy cup with cover for Pains La...

Hammer

£650

HORSE RACING - A Coalport trophy cup with cover for Pains Lane Races, September 27th 1853, in the form of a two-handled cup and cover with a fruit-pod finial, the claret pink ground painted with horse racing scene and trailing foliage in gilt, the opposing side with gilt inscription, cover with grape finial, base unmarked, overall height 29cm high Provenance: Ivor Southorn Collection. Previously sold at Sotheby's on 23rd November 1993. Sold together with a small amount of photocopied literature and correspondence relating to Pain's Lane Racecourse. Footnote: Pains Lane is the original name for St. George's, a crossroads settlement of squatter-type cottages which sprung up in the eighteenth century on the parish borders of Lilleshall, Shifnal and Wrockwardine Wood. The church, dedicated to St. George, was built in 1806 and there was a market near the crossroads by the 1820s. What was the racecourse, is now the present-day location of St. George's Primary School. Pains Lane meetings took place between 1840 - 1859 before continuing from 1860 - 1874 as St. George's Races. Racing had a considerable following among the miners and ironworkers of the Coalbrookdale coalfield, but this is the only known meeting to have taken place in the coalfield itself. Each winner of the race would be awarded a purse of ten sovereigns together with a Coalport trophy cup, which was valued at £10 in 1845. It is believed that twenty-six cups were offered in total, the last of which was in 1869. The winner of this 1853 Coalport cup, 'Le Juif', was owned by Mr Joseph T. Phillips. Phillips farmed over 300 acres at Donnington Wood and also held property in Hadley. Prior to his win, he had regular involvement with the races including acting as steward, committeeman and a judge. Mr Phillips would go on to also win two further trophies in the 1865 and 1866 St. George's Races.