Footnotes

Provenance:
Won by Mr Tom Worton by his racing horse Victor Wild.
Thence by descent to the present owner.

VICTOR WILD WINS THE ASCOT 'ROYAL HUNT CUP'

This victory was achieved by the legendary four year old racehorse Victor Wild, a great middle-distance runner, who was owned by the infamous Mr Tom Worton. Tom Worton was an unusual racing horse owner, as he was not a member of the elite ruling classes, but a publican of a well known drinking establishment in Walthamstow. As such, Victor Wild and Tom Worton were extremely popular winners with the public, as they bucked convention and ignited the imagination of the masses.

The Ascot Royal Hunt Cup always provides one of the greatest spectacles of the Royal Meeting as a maximum field thunders up Ascot's straight mile course for one of the biggest betting races of the season. First run in 1843, originally contested on a right-handed course over 7 furlongs and 166 yards, although the race's distance was shortened to 7 furlongs and 155 yards in 1930, but was then extended to its present length in 1956. It is now run on a straight course on the second day of the Royal meeting, and usually features a large field. It is one of three perpetual trophies at the meeting, along with the Gold Cup and the Queen's Vase, which can be kept permanently by the winning owners.

The previous year on October 5th, 1893 Victor Wild won The 'Hurst Park Club Cup' with a prize money of £1,000 and the trophy, sold in these rooms, The Connoisseur's Library Sale, 14 February 2024, lot 627.

For the design of his silverware, Hancock engaged the services of some of the finest modellers and sculptors of the 19th century, including Louis Freret, Baron Charles Marochetti, H. McCarthy, Eugene Lamy, Marshall Wood, Raffaele Monti, Henry Hugh Armstead RA, E. T. Parris and Charles Bell Birch ARA.
This cup was designed by Charles Bell Birch ARA (1832 - 1893) for Hancocks & Co.

The two bas relief scenes are based on incidents from Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, 'Merlin and Vivien'
'Here when the Queen demanded as by chance
"Know ye the stranger woman?" "Let her be,"
Said Lancelot and unhooded casting off
The goodly falcon free; she towered; her bells,
Tone under tone, shrilled; and they lifted up
Their eager faces, wondering at the strength,
Boldness and royal knighthood of the bird
Who pounced her quarry and slew it.'

and 'Geraint and Enid'
'For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before
Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk.
There on a day, he sitting high in hall,
Before him came a forester of Dean,
Wet from the woods, with notice of a hart
Taller than all his fellows, milky-white,
First seen that day: these things he told the King.
Then the good King gave order to let blow
His horns for hunting on the morrow morn.
And when the King petitioned for his leave
To see the hunt, allowed it easily.'

Literature:
Joseph Cannon, 'Memoirs of an Old-Time Trainer - Part II - Victor Wild', The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, July 24, 1936, pp.186-187 and p.216

The Illustrated Sporting And Dramatic News, June 23, 1894, page 590, with illustration

Illustration:
The Illustrated Sporting And Dramatic News, July 24 1936, the champion race horse Victor Wild