Black and white print of a trotting horse (Wedgewood) standing in a grassy meadow. A house and trees in background.
Description:
A black and white print of a trotting horse standing in a grassy meadow. The horse has finely developed muscles and a sensitive face. A white two-story farm house and clumps of trees are in the background.
Wedgewood 692 was sired by Belmont, a distant offspring of Hambletonian, in 1871. His dam was Woodbine. He was publicized for winning every race in the Grand Circuit of 1880 and sired 31 trotters that could race the mile in under 2:30.
The firm of Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann worked in New Jersey in the late 1800’s. The firm's most renowned client was Puck magazine -- the first weekly magazine in America to offer color illustrations. In addition to printing the cartoons of Puck, the firm attracted a wide variety of other commercial clients. By the mid-1800's Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann had become one of the largest American lithographic firms. They did a wide variety of work, including advertising posters, pamphlets and reproductions of oil and watercolor paintings. In the 1880's and 1890's Mayer Merkel & Ottmann shared the honor with the Donaldson Brothers of being the largest American trade card producers. In the 1880’s they created three color lithograph and letterpress print advertising the proprietory medicines of E. S. Wells, chemist. In 1885, Mayer and Merkel retired from the firm and Ottmann took over the business, renaming it J. Ottmann Lithographing Company, which continued in business until the first decade of the 20th century, when it was merged into the United States Printing & Lithographing Company.
