Historic Doncaster race memorabilia goes under hammer
A stunning collection of the historic handbills that were printed to promote the race weeks that enthralled all classes of 18th century Yorkshire society is to be auctioned on Friday after turning up in a clear-out at one of the county’s great houses.
Two dozen handbills ranging from the three-day Leedes (sic) Races meeting of 1760 through to the 1805 August meeting in York are to go under the hammer.
In between are the handbills for the racing weeks at Wakefield (1762 and 1773), Hambleton (1766), Scarborough (1767), Doncaster (1767,1802,1803), Boroughbridge (1782), Malton (1803), Pontefract (1803) and York (1804).
The collection also includes 18th and early 19th century handbills for meetings at Newmarket, Oxford, Chesterfield and Preston.
Holly Hammond of auctioneers Duggleby Stephenson: “Racing weeks were absolutely massive events back in the late 18th century, attracting all classes of people from the racehorse owning aristocracy all the way through to ordinary folk who enjoyed the drama and spectacle of what were spectacular social gatherings.
“In addition to the horses, these meetings invariably had cockfighting contests all over the place for gamblers of more modest means, nightly race
balls in the local assembly rooms, shows put on by travelling theatre companies and huge ‘ordinaries’, fixed priced feasts laid on by the local inns and taverns.
“Handbills, turned out by local printers, were important in an age before mass market newspapers, promoting the meetings, supplying a programme for the races and providing advertising space for everything that was going on.”
Holly added: “They were of course produced for practical, short-term use . . . discarded at the end of the day or week . . . with the result that two hundred and fifty years later surviving examples are rare, incredibly rare. This is the most astonishing collection we’ve ever seen. It may well be unique.
“These handbills survived because members of an aristocratic Yorkshire family were racing enthusiasts and they not only kept them as mementos but had them framed. That not only preserved them but has kept them in remarkable condition.”
Holly said that the collection recently came to light during a clear-out of a storage area in a country house in the county and members of the family decided that the time had come to let the collection move on to other collector hands.
The collection is being sold in seven lots in The Period Home Auction at Duggleby Stephenson’s York saleroom on Friday, February 20. Pre-sale estimates are all in the £100-£500 range.
The Period Home catalogue is available at www.davidduggleby.com. Viewing is at the Duggleby Stephenson Saleroom in the York Auction Centre at Murton throughout the week including Friday from 9am until the start of the auction at 11am.