Large Sporting Masterpiece Painting

🎩 “Hare Seeds Gentlemen! Hare Seeds — With The Quorn Hunt”

Believed to Depict Tom Firr Upon a Grey Horse by Basil Nightingale, Signed and Dated 1895

A hunting narrative sporting watercolour capturing the authority, precision, and social theatre of England’s most prestigious hunt at its late Victorian height.

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🎨 Subject & Medium

Watercolour, gouache and bodycolour heightened with white on paper

Inscribed upper right:
“Hare Seeds Gentleman! Hare seeds!”
(With the Quorn — a sketch from memory)

This finely executed sporting composition depicts the mounted professional huntsman of the Quorn Hunt sounding his horn mid-call while seated upon a powerful grey hunter. The inscription records a traditional cry indicating that the hounds have momentarily taken up the scent of a hare rather than a fox — a subtle but telling interruption within the disciplined order of a fox hunt.

Executed in watercolour enriched with opaque gouache and heightened white, the surface possesses both luminosity and sculptural modelling rarely achieved in sporting works on paper.

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🖌️ Composition & Technique

The composition is architecturally balanced. The rider occupies the exact visual centre — a deliberate assertion of hierarchy consistent with the huntsman’s professional authority within the field.

The grey hunter advances in collected movement, foreleg lifted, weight distributed with anatomical credibility. Nightingale demonstrates a deep understanding of equine structure:

• Powerful shoulder articulation
• Substantial depth through the girth
• Clean cannons and well-defined hocks
• Controlled flexion at the poll

The restrained ochre ground functions as a tonal stage, allowing the saturated scarlet coat to command immediate attention. Heightened white bodycolour along the horse’s musculature and the huntsman’s breeches creates dimensional relief, suggesting light falling across open Leicestershire pasture.

The brush handling alternates between fine linear precision in the tack and bridle work and broader, confident strokes within the ground plane — reinforcing movement without sacrificing clarity.

At nearly one metre wide in its current presentation, the work possesses commanding decorative authority.

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🐎 About the Rider

The figure is possibly believed to represent Tom (Thomas) Firr (1847–1910), professional huntsman to the Quorn and one of the most celebrated hunting figures of the Victorian era.

Firr’s reputation rested upon:

• Exceptional command of hounds
• Technical horsemanship across demanding pasture country
• Calm, disciplined field authority

Greys were favoured in Leicestershire for visibility across rolling pasture divided by high hedges and timber fences.

The raised horn, erect posture, and centred dominance are iconographic signals of the professional huntsman rather than a gentleman rider.

No documentary evidence confirming the identification accompanies the painting and the association should therefore be regarded as a traditional attribution. The identification of the sitter is offered as a non-guaranteed professional opinion based upon evidence available and should not be regarded as definitive statement of fact. Nevertheless, the connection adds considerable cultural and historical interest to the work

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📜 Historical Significance

The Quorn Hunt, founded in 1696 and based in Leicestershire, was widely regarded as the pinnacle of English fox hunting. By 1895 — the date of this work — the hunt was under the Mastership of the 6th Duke of Rutland, a period often considered one of its great eras.

Leicestershire pasture country served as the proving ground of aristocracy, cavalry officers, and sporting elites. Hunting in this context functioned as:

• A demonstration of social hierarchy
• A test of horsemanship and breeding
• A stage of disciplined ritual

The phrase “Hare Seeds Gentlemen!” captures a fleeting but authentic disruption — hounds diverting to hare scent. The note “a sketch from memory” implies first-hand observation, elevating the painting from decorative sporting study to a recorded sporting incident.

Works that document named hunts, identifiable huntsmen, and precise field moments occupy a particularly desirable position within British sporting art collecting.

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🏛️ About the Artist

Basil Nightingale was a British painter and illustrator active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, specialising in equestrian, military, and sporting subjects.

Professional highlights include:

• Contributions to The Graphic
• Contributions to The Illustrated London News
• Exhibition at London institutions including the Royal Academy

His work reflects the visual language of late Victorian sporting culture — structured hierarchy, disciplined posture, and anatomical precision.

Nightingale’s handling of horses is especially respected among collectors for its structural accuracy and compositional restraint.

He developed a consistent following among collectors of British sporting and equestrian art, particularly works associated with named hunts and documented sporting figures.

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✍️ Signed

Signed and dated lower right:
Basil Nightingale, 1895

The clear signature and firm date anchor the work squarely within Tom Firr’s tenure at the Quorn.

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🖼️ Framed

Recently professionally reframed in a Larson-Juhl gilt moulding.

Ivory white mount with refined gold slip and Artglass AR70 anti-reflective museum glazing (70% UV protection).

The presentation is museum-standard and investment appropriate. The AR70 glazing dramatically reduces reflection while preserving tonal clarity — allowing the scarlet and grey modelling to read with exceptional crispness under varied lighting conditions.

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📏 Size

Sheet: approximately 47 cm x 66 cm
Framed: 99 cm Wide x 80.5 cm High x 4.5 cm Depth

The near-metre width provides significant wall impact — ideal for a library, study, equestrian estate, or formal sporting collection.

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📚 Provenance

• Private Collection, United Kingdom
• Mellors & Kirk, Nottingham — Fine Art, Antiques & Collectors Sale, December 2025
• Eastern Shire Antiques Dealers Collection
• Curated by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD
• Privately Loaned &  Exhibited at the Famous Lord Hill Museum

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💼 Collecting Context

Quorn-related works retain enduring appeal among collectors of British hunting art in the United States and internationally.

Particularly desirable attributes present here:

• Named hunt of highest prestige
• Believed depiction of a documented huntsman
• Firm 1895 date within peak tenure
• Narrative inscription
• Large decorative scale
• Museum-grade conservation framing

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💚 Why You’ll Love It

✔ Iconic association with the most prestigious hunt in England
✔ Believed portrayal of the legendary Tom Firr
✔ Narrative inscription capturing an original hunting cry
✔ Signed and firmly dated 1895
✔ Superb anatomical rendering of a Leicestershire grey hunter
✔ Museum-standard AR70 glazing and professional conservation framing
✔ Exceptional near-metre width for dramatic display
✔ Strong transatlantic appeal for U.S. sporting collectors

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🔍 Condition Report

The sheet presents in strong, stable condition. Pigments remain vibrant with excellent retention of the scarlet coat and subtle grey modelling. A horizontal handling crease line runs across the top and has flattened over time.

The work has been professionally reframed using conservation materials. Mount, backing, and glazing are recent and clean. The frame shows minimal signs of handling consistent with careful installation.

Full detailed condition report available upon request for qualified collectors.