Horse Medallion
A Review by Jerry Kudlac

Fenton’s Horse Head Medallion pattern first appeared in custard glass about 1915, followed by carnival glass, and then in pink depressions glass in 1930. The design consists of five circular medallions (horse heads) with a background of petals.  The pattern is found in 7 – 8 inch plates and bowls with a collar base or with three ball feet.  Bowls may be ruffled, round, ice cream; jack-in-the-pulpit, nut bowl and rosebowl shape and found in over a dozen different colors.  The rarest being a red Rosebowl that sold for $9000 in 1995.

Recently, I purchased an old print of the 1848 painting Pharaoh’s Chariot Horses by John Frederick Herring, Sr. (1795-1865) at a local carnival glass auction.  Fenton’s Horse Head Medallion pattern is a stylized version of this painting in reverse (a mirror image).  After finding the print was unsuitable for re-framing, an Internet search resulted in not only finding another print; but also, an interesting story about its’ popularity, symbolism, and origin.  Historically, horses have been a symbol of wealth, status and power since biblical times.  The inspiration for the printing is thought to be the Egyptian horses used by pharaoh’s chariots in pursuit of the Israelites into the Red Sea.

Herring first exhibited the painting, entitled A Study, in 1848, at the British Institute; the following year he changed the title to Pharaoh’s Horses. Later, it became a very popular engraving and marketing logo in American and Europe.  A framed engraving referred to as Horse Heads, attributed to Rosa Bonheur, sold for 75 cents in the 1902 Sears, Roebuck and Co catalog. The artist’s name usually remained obscure as unauthorized images were copied.  The Herring painting sold for the first time in 1986, at Christie’s auction house of London for $445,000.  It is now in another private collection.

Interestingly, the design was found in a tattoo archive collection indicating it has also been popular with tattoo artists for over 100 years.   By the 1920's, it was advertised in tattoo suppliers’ catalogs along with other classic religious-art designs and as the cover for a how-to-tattoo booklet.

Herring’s, painting was thought to be the oldest rendition of Pharaoh’s Horses until  1987, when Randall E. Tyree, an artist from Leslie, Missouri purchased an old unsigned painting of Arabian horses for $25 at the Sullivan flea market.  The McCrone Research Institute of Chicago was commissioned to analyze the painting after Christie’s auction house stated the painting was a copy.  Dr. Walter McCrone, well-know for his examination of the “Shroud of Turin” and works by Rembrandt and Manet, stated that the hand-woven canvas predated the Industrial Revolution of the 1820's’ and the paint pigments dated to 1704, indicating the painting to be 100 years or more older than Herring’s version.

Tyree then traced the ownership of the painting to a local Carver family who immigrated to the US in 1915, from Disington, Cumbria, in northern England where it had hung in the tavern called “The Boot”.  Oliver Beckett, a Herring & Sons art historian, examined the painting and stated that Herring, Sr. was a stagecoach driver in that area of northern England while developing his craft as an equine artist and it may have been the inspiration for his version of the painting.

Both paintings feature three identically posed charging white Arabian horses, but with a few differences.  The unsigned painting is a 24 x 24 inch square canvas that conveys a sense of power, motion and fear of the horses being overcome by dark clouds and drowning in a stormy sea.  The unsigned version made its first public appearance in 1999, when Tyree issued a limited-edition lithograph.  Herring’s version was painted on a 30 inch circular canvas; but conveys the horses in more placid mood with a blue sky and calm seas.  Since the mid-1880's, it has been the source of the classical “Horse Head” design.

We now own a new print of Herring’s painting as well as Tyree’s lithograph to augment our glass collection. Tyree is writing a book describing his investigation and authentication of the painting.  Ironically, a number of rare pieces of carnival glass have followed a similar path of discovery and documentation.  Who would have known that carnival glass was part of an interesting who-done-it story?

NOTE:  I would like to thank Randall E. Tyree for copyright permission to publish the photograph of the unsigned painting and for his generous sharing of information for this article.  The lithograph is available for purchase from: Blue Tree Gallery, 6167 Hwy AC, Leslie, MO. 63056. (573) 457-8358.

EPILOG: February 14, 2007   

R.E. Tyree announces the publication of his Limited First Edition Book: "The Mystery of Pharaoh's Horses".   This is the story of Tyree's twenty years of struggle unraveling the mystery behind the deeply shrouded origination of one of the world's most recognized, but least know works of art.  This story is a captivating and intriguing saga that spans two continents and will have readers the world over sitting on the edge of their seats.  Tyree's devotion to the artwork and vivid description enhance the amazing story, what starts out as a simple, (who done it) becomes an adventure of a lifetime.  The book is available for $25.00 + $5.00 shipping & handling. Call or write R.E. Tyree, 6167 Hwy AC, Leslie, MO. 63056. (573) 457-8358.

Permission to copy book cover granted to Jerry Kudlac by R.E. Tyree.