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The horse that died on the man's hands: moral--don't hold your trotter too high – Vintage Wall Art

The horse that died on the man's hands: moral--don't hold your trotter too high, New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1878. — antique lithograph
The horse that died on the man's hands: moral--don't hold your trotter too high, New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1878.. Antique lithograph from the Horses collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This antique lithograph of The horse that died on the man's hands: moral--don't hold your trotter too high brings a moment of history to your wall. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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The horse that died on the man's hands: moral--don't hold your trotter too high

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Its title spells out the joke: a driver who holds his trotter too high, and the animal dies in his hands. Issued by Currier & Ives around 1878, the lithograph is one of the firm's comic sporting prints, aimed at a public that followed harness racing closely. The gag targets a real practice, the checkrein, which pulled a horse's head up and could hamper its breathing during a hard trot, so drivers who showed off with high-held horses made easy targets.

Created / publishedNew York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1878.
Medium1 print : lithograph.
GenreLithographs 1870-1880.
NotesCurrier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 3191
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,211 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-174718

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