Overall: 27.5cm (10.7in) x 34.5cm (13.5in) x 8cm (3in)
Patinated bronze. A Victorian model of a standing horse in the animalier style by Sir Edgar Boehm, Sculptor in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Signed to the integral naturalistic base. The plinth inscribed ‘Indian Cavalry Tournament 1935, 1 Capt R.O. Critchley, 2 Lieut T. Todd, 3 Major J. Hulme Taylor, BACK Lt Col H. Macdonald’.
The 1935 month-long Indian Cavalry Polo Tournament was played at Lahore and culminated in a 9-5 victory for Probyn’s Horse over the Guides’ Cavalry. Probyn’s goal scorers, Critchley and Todd, later successively commanded the 50th Indian Tank Brigade in the Arakan Campaign of 1944-45.
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm Bt, RA was well regarded as a sculptor of horses which inevitably became an essential in regard to his public statuary. His most notable public equestrian works include Lord Napier of Magdala in Queen’s Gate. He also produced an equestrian maquette for Queen Victoria of her favourite Hafiz Abdul Karim. Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild commissioned Boehm to produce a large sculpture of the stallion King Tom (1874) to mark the resting place at Mentmore Towers of his son-in-law’s favourite horse. The son-in-law was the 5th Earl of Rosebery who was Prime Minister in the 1890s and also a keen horse breeder. Another of Boehm’s celebrated equine commissions of was the Duke of Portland’s St Simon (1881-1908), the undefeated British Thoroughbred.