Hethersett poster – 1907 Vintage Steeplechase poster – Going to the Start – Sir Alfred James Munnings

Hethersett poster – 1907 Vintage Steeplechase poster – Sir Alfred James Munnings – Going to the Start This fabulous and much-loved Hethersett poster, also known as Going to Start, was created in 1907. It is an early work by the renowned landscape artist, portrait painter and poster designer Aldred James Munnings. He was a prolific artist but it is probably best known for his equine painting depicting horses participating in hunting scenes and at racing events. The vintage steeplechase poster promotes horse racing in the large village of Hethersett in the county of Norfolk, England. Munnings horse racing poster depicts several racing thoroughbreds making their way to the start of the race. The artist has managed to perfectly capture those last few seconds before the race gets underway. You can feel the adrenaline in the air as horse and rider prepare to go head to head. The atmosphere is palpable as the jockeys brightly-coloured silks flash in the sunlight. Each jockey is wearing their horse owners colours… red jacket with white sleeves, red and white stripes, black and white hoops and red jacket with white sleeves each completed by the traditional white jodhpurs and black and tan riding boots. Eyeing each other up in the final moments before they get under way. A crowd of enthusiastic spectators, line the edges of the racetrack, shouting and cheering for their favourites as they wait for the race to begin. The horses are an impressive sight, well-groomed, alert and charged with excitement and tension, in anticipation of the thrilling race ahead. Sir Alfred James Munnings In 1892, at just 14 years of age, Alfred Munnings began his career as an artist as an apprentice at Page Brothers, a printing company based in Norwich. Munnings would spend the next six years designing and drawing advertising posters for the company, also attending the Norwich School of Art in his spare time. His work came to the attention of John Shaw Tomkins. the director of the Norwich-based chocolate manufacturer Cayley and Son. Tomkins soon commissioned advertising posters and designs for chocolate boxes, as well as buying a number of his earliest exhibits at the Norwich Art Circle. This coupled with Munnings’ first paintings being accepted for an exhibition at the Royal Academy gave the young man the confidence to decline a permanent position at the printing company. Instead, pursuing a career as a full-time painter. To supplement his income from his paintings Munnings continued to produce occasional poster designs whilst establishing himself as a painter. Going to the Start is one of Munnings’s earliest depictions of a subject that became a favourite of the artist… the thrilling, exciting and invigorating spectacle of the horses and riders in those seconds before the starting signal is given. He revisited those moments time and time again in his equine patings such as The Start at Newmarket, Moving up to the Start, The Start and perhaps most famously of all Going out Epsom. How much is an original 1907 Hethersett poster by Sir Alfred James Munnings worth? Original copies of this 1907 AJ Munnings Hethersett poster don’t come up for sale that often. And when they do they don’t perform like the artist’s popular fine art paintings. However, they don’t perform like a nag either. An original copy of this poster was put into auction in 2019 acheiving a significant hammer price of £3,250, more than twice the estimated guide price of £8000-£1,200. That price however was significantly placed further down the field when the original artwork was placed into an auction in 2022 with a guide price of between £40,000 – £60,000. Other significant paintings include Munnings “A Start at Newmarket” which acheived £419,250 in 2019 and his painting “The Coming Storm” sold foralmost £1.2 million in 2021. Even this pales into insignifance when you consider may of his oil paintings on canvas such as The Bramham Moor Hounds at Weeton Whin which reached a price of over £2,000,000 in 2019. And even this is set to be blown away when in 2022, perhaps, Munnings most famous painting, Going Out Epsom painting is to be auctioned with an estimated guide price of $3,000,000 and $5,000,000.