Skelt's Horse Combats

Uncoloured theatrical souvenir plate representing an equestrian combat from the play 'The Siege of Jerusalem' . The portrait which shows a combat between two characters from the play has been cut down one side and only one horse and rider is now visible. Such sheets would have been sold plain as theatrical souvenirs for colouring and tinselling at home.

In the first half of the nineteenth century London theatres needed to be licenced. Circuses and equestrian drama were a way around the legislation. Melodramas and equestrian combats were popular features of these illegitimate theatres.