Földvári Books

New Caledonia Horse Racing Ephemera

[Dezarnaulds, Jean-Baptiste]; [Boutan, Joseph Adolphe]; [Higginson, John]

Courses de chevaux sous le haut patronage de M. le Gouverneur. Programme […]. [With:] Premières Courses de chevaux. 16 août 1865. (Nouvelle-Calédonie et dépendances.)

Port-de-France [Nouméa]: Imprimerie du Gouvernement. 1865. Two separate sheets. Printed on silk. Framed with light blue silk ribbon frame (papered on verso). Silk sheet size: ca. 33 × 44,5 cm; frame: 2 cm. / Folded twice. Both prints are in fine condition.

The programme and the results of the first horse races in New Caledonia took place on August 16, 1865. Both placards are printed on silk.

New Caledonia’s first horse race had four major attractions, flat racing, harness racing, poney racing, hurdling, and a race for amateurs also took place, as the present “programme-placard” — singed in print by the local notary, Jean-Baptiste Bernard dit Camille Dezarnaulds, the treasurer of the Horse Racing Committee — informs us. The event was under the high patronage of the Governor, Charles Guillain. The additional “commemorative placard” with the results of the races, lists the participant horses of each category, their jockeys and the winners of each race, and the owners of those horses; this print also introduces the members of the Horse Racing Committee.

The first horse race in New Caledonia was organized by Joseph Adolphe Boutan and John Higginson, and it took place at the Styx-cove at the Baie des Citrons on August 16, 1865. (O’Reilly 1953). Its most popular race with twelve participants, the flat race, was won by Coquet (jockeyed by Mr. Casey), a horse belonging to Madame Guillain, the governor’s wife. The races are annually took place after a two-year intermission, and ever since horse racing is one of the most popular spectator sports in New Caledonia. (Peyrolle 2000)

Boutan (1828–1900), the French agricultural engineer arrived in New Caledonia in 1862, where he became the director of the agricultural school (Ferme-école) in Nouméa, and of the “ferme modèle” in Yawé near Saint-Louis. Probably he was the first to bring racehorses to New Caledonia and the initiator of horse racing on the island. Boutan served as the first president of the Horse Racing Committee, and also participated as a jockey of the first races in flat race and hurdling. Higginson (1839–1904) was an Irish-French businessman, one of the most important pioneering entrepreneurs of New Caledonia, and the founder of the mining and metallurgical company, Société Le Nickel. He was also a founding member of the Horse Racing Committee and participant jockey of the first races in flat race and poney race.

Extremely scarce equestrian memorabilia, we couldn’t trace any other copies on the market or in institutional holdings of the placards, which are also some very early examples of printing in New Caledonia, where the press was introduced only a few years earlier, in 1862. (Coquilhat, 1987)

Literature: Coquilhat G. (1987). La presse en nouvelle-calédonie au xixème siècle. Société d'études historiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.; O’Reilly, P. (1953) Chronologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. De la découverte de l'le au cinquantenaire de la prise de possession (1774–1903). In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, vol. 9. Paris: Société des océanistes. pp. 25–53; Peyrolle, L. (2000) Sport et jeux d’argent : Hippisme. In: De sport en scores. L'épopée du sport en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Musée de la Ville de Nouméa Exposition, Septembre 2000. Noumeá: Musée de la Ville de Nouméa. pp. 12–19.

Price: €12,000.00