Lot Details
Lot 2428
Frederic Sackrider Remington 1861-1909 The Potato Race
1861-1909
The Potato Race
Signed Frederic Remington/Troop A (lr)
Pen and ink with wash heightened with white on paperboard
Sight 13 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches
Exhibited:
Schenectady, New York, The Schenectady Museum, Collection of Chaylie L. Saxe, March 7, 1971, no. 18
Literature:
Frederic Remington, Harper's Weekly, "Troop A Athletics," March 3, 1894, pp. 210, 212
The Schenectady Museum, Collection of Chaylie L. Saxe, exhibition catalogue, 1971, no. 18, ill.
Peter H. Hassrick and Melissa J. Webster, Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Seattle, Washington and London: Buffalo Bill Historical Center in association with University of Washington Press, 1996, vol. II, p.506 (cites illustration from drawing)
The origins of Troop A date to 1884, when a group of wealthy young men interested in horseback riding formed a private unit, called the First New-York Hussars or First New York Dragoons. They adopted the full dress uniform of the 10th Hussars, a London Regiment. In 1889, the unit of 53 men was mustered into the New York National Guard and attached to the First Brigade as Troop A. The troop initially rented quarters at Dickel's Riding Academy at 136 West 56th Street. In 1893 John R. Thomas was commissioned to draw up plans for a new cavalry armory for the unit; the new facility was appended to the rear of the Eighth Regiment Armory at Park Avenue, between 94th and 95th Streets. The structure was completed in 1895. Partially dismantled in 1966, architectural remnants of the armory were incorporated into the facade of the Hunter College Campus Schools.
In competitions at their New York City headquarters as well as at the State Camp in Peekskill, the guardsmen of Troop A offered demonstrations of horsemanship and athletic prowess. The mounted events, including tugs of war, hurdle races, and a potato race, were described by Frederic Remington in an article for Harper's Weekly that appeared in March 1894. The piece was accompanied by several illustrations by the artist, depicting feats of riding and skill. Among the group was The Potato Race, depicting a guardsman in full dress uniform, about to retrieve a potato from the ground. It is likely that the drawing was created expressly to accompany Remington's article. The tournament depicted probably took place at Dickel's Riding Academy since the new armory was not completed until 1895.
Praising the guardsmen of Troop A as "the finest troop on this crust," the artist opined that the "annual tournament, held in their armory, [was] becoming year by year a New York event which in time will rank with the Horse Show and the Thanksgiving game." His description is vivid: "In these games the troopers ride like fiends, and are flung around in a way which would damage a piece of rubber hose. They pound each other lustily with their broadswords, and pick up potatoes from the ground while riding sixteen-hand horses. They chase each other to get a piece of ribbon tied on the arm of one; they grab each other and fall off their horses, and continue to maul each other in the tan bark. They mount double at a gallop, and cut heads while taking a hurdle bareback, and end up the evening by a general melee which is a merry slugging match, and as productive of black-and-blue spots as the 'flying wedge.'"
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