Coloured Horse Prints
These coloured horse prints bring equestrian art and sporting history straight to the wall.
Coloured Horse Prints
When you search for coloured horse prints, you encounter a variety of antique and vintage works depicting equines, hunting scenes, and military subjects. The examples appearing on this page span several eras, including the Georgian, Regency, and Victorian periods, alongside later 19th and early 20th century pieces.
You are most likely to meet hand-coloured copper engravings and lithographs framed behind glass in wood or gilt wood surrounds. These works range from individual framed art prints to complete sets of four depicting traditional hunting subjects.
The assortment also includes specialised items such as political prints and French military plates from the Napoleonic period. Paper is the primary medium for the imagery, often accompanied by wood frames and burr wood veneer accents.
Materials and construction
The underlying images are produced using techniques such as copper engraving, lithography, aquatint, and chromolithography on paper. Printers and publishers utilised ink to pull these impressions before artists applied watercolour by hand to add colour to the scenes.
Finished works are typically housed in wooden frames, sometimes enhanced with gilt wood or burr wood veneer. Protection is provided by glass fronting, which shields the delicate paper and hand-applied pigments from environmental moisture and dust.
Coloured Horse Prints Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical asking prices for coloured horse prints among the pieces listed under this phrase on Sellingantiques today, from the lower quarter to the upper quarter. They describe what is for sale here now, not the wider market.
Listings feature paper prints, ink, and watercolour supported by wood, gilt wood, and burr wood veneer frames.
Assessing quality and execution
Quality rests in the crispness of the original inked lines and the skill of the hand-colouring applied across the paper. Finer impressions maintain sharp detail in the figures of horses and riders, whereas lesser examples can exhibit blurred lines or heavy, unrefined washes of pigment.
The integrity of the framing materials also separates standard examples from superior ones. Original glass, substantial timber frames, and well-preserved burr wood veneer or gilt finishes elevate the presentation and historical context of the piece.
Ridinger·Thomas Worth
The Coloured Horse Prints Glossary
- Lithograph
- A print produced by a printing process on a flat surface, traditionally stone, using oil and water repulsion. This technique allowed for accurate reproductions of detailed artwork.
- Aquatint
- A printmaking technique that produces tonal effects by using acid to etch the printing plate. It often resembles watercolour washes in finished impressions.
- Chromolithograph
- A colour lithographic technique using multiple stones or plates, one for each colour. This method created vibrant, multi-coloured prints without requiring subsequent hand-colouring.
- Crystoleum
- A method of applying a transparent hand-coloured print to the inside of concave glass and then removing the paper backing. The image was then painted further from behind to create depth.
- Copper engraving
- An intaglio printing process where an artist cuts lines directly into a copper plate with a sharp tool. Ink is forced into the grooves to create the final impression on paper.
Coloured Horse Prints: Frequently Asked Questions
What periods do coloured horse prints cover?
These pieces range from Georgian and Regency examples through to Victorian and late 19th-century works.
Dates vary from mid-18th-century copper engravings to early 20th-century framed items.
How are these prints normally framed?
Many are housed behind glass in traditional wood frames, including gilt wood and burr wood veneer surrounds.
Original framing helps preserve the fragile paper and hand-applied watercolour pigments.
Are the colours original to the prints?
Many examples feature hand-applied watercolour added at the time of publication to enhance the monochrome engraved lines.
Techniques like chromolithography also introduced multiple ink colours directly during the printing process.
Can I find complete sets of prints?
Listings occasionally include matched sets of multiple engravings or lithographs depicting sporting and hunting themes.
These sets are often kept together within matching frames.