THE ASCOT RACES EMPEROR’S CUP FOR 1845

THE EMPEROR'S CUP, 1845 A VICTORIAN SILVER SCULPTURAL CENTREPIECE MARK OF JOHN SAMUEL HUNT, FOR HUNT AND ROSKELL, LONDON, 1844, DESIGNED BY EDWARD HODGES BAILY On shaped triangular plinth, surmounted by the equestrian figure of Peter the Great crushing a serpent beneath the hooves of his horse on rockwork base applied twice with an inscription, in Latin and Russian, the lower plinth applied on the three angles with the Imperial Russian arms and with detachable panels between, depicting the Hermitage Palace, St. Petersburg, The Kremlin, and Windsor Castle, with inscription beneath, the top of the plinth applied on the angles with figures of Russian cavalrymen, the body of the centrepiece, applied with rectangular plaques, the first depicting St. George and the Dragon, the second Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and , and the third with an inscription, with laurel wreaths between, marked on base, body, rockwork, arms, wreaths, reverse of panels, tails of the small horses, the Emperor’s cloak, most nuts, the underside of the horses engraved ‘No. 1854 Published as the act directs by Hunt and Roskell, 136 New Bond Street, London July 1845’ 37 7/8 in. (96.2 cm.) high 596 oz. 4 dwt. (18,544 gr.)

The inscription on the plinth rim reads ‘WON BY CHESTNUT HORSE THE EMPEROR’.

The inscriptions on the body read,

‘LUDORUM ASCOTIENSIUM MEMOR QUIBUS IPSE INTERFUISSET REGINAE VICTORIAE HOSPES MENS IUN MDCCCXLIV SOLENNE CERTAMINIS EQUESTRIS PRAEMIUM INSTITUIT NICOLAUS TOTIUS RUSSIAE IMPERATOR’.

The inscription on the rockwork base reads,

‘PETRO PRIMO CATHARINA SECUNDA MDCCLXXXII’

‘ПЕТРУ ПЕРВОМУ ЕКАТЕРИНА ВТОРАЯ ЛѣТА 1782’

PROVENANCE: Won by the Earl of Albemarle’s chestnut horse The Emperor, The Emperor’s Cup, Ascot Races, 12 June 1845, William Charles Keppel, 4th Earl of Albemarle G.C.H. (1772-1849), Major-General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893- 1973), who married Countess Anastasia de Torby, granddaughter of Grand Duke Mikhailovich of , displayed in the Russian Rooms, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, by descent to their elder daughter, Georgina Wernher (1919-2011), who married firstly Lt.-Col. Harold Joseph Phillips (1909-1980) in 1944, and secondly Lt.-Col. Sir George Kennard, 3rd Bt., in 1992, by descent to her eldest child by her first marriage, Alexandra Anastasia Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn (1946-2018).

LITERATURE: ‘Ascot Races, The Prize Plate’, The Illustrated London News, vol. 6, 14 June 1845, pp. 383-384, illustrated. G. J. Cawthorne and R. S. Herod, Royal Ascot, Its History and Its Associations, London, 1902, pp. 92, illustrated. R. Trevelyan, The Wernhers of Luton Hoo, London, 2012, p. 408.

Guide Price: £250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand pounds)