The International Contest Between Heenan and Sayers at Farnborough 1860

The International Contest Between Heenan and Sayers at Farnborough , On the 17th of April 1860 is a hand-colored lithograph after a drawing by the English artist W. L. Walton and published by George Newbold.  In 1860 a bare-knuckle fight was illegal and considered very brutal. This fight was the last of it’s kind and lasted for two hours and twenty minutes with forty two rounds resulting in a draw with each fighter receiving a championship belt and half the prize money. The brutality was so shocking to the crowd of spectators that they broke into the ring which resulted in the draw and a law was passed shortly thereafter that banned bare knuckle fighting forever. An English photographer Frederick William Nichols took photographs of the fight between the American boxer John Heenan and the English boxer Tom Sayers.  A London photographic studio, Watkins, actually took more than two hundred and fifty portraits of the spectators. These photographs were used by the lithographer to create a realistic portrait of this historic event. This print is in very good condition with deep rich coloring. The top left border corner is cut off and  some short tears on the top and right border.