Lucy Glitters Showing the Way, an unpublished watercolour by John Leech 1863-64

LEECH, John. Lucy Glitters Showing the Way (Unpublished watercolour for Mr Facey Romford’s Hounds) [c.1863–64]
 
Original watercolour and pen-and-ink, 290 × 240 mm, signed by the artist lower left in brown wash in the hedgerow; numbered “2” in pencil verso. mount toning and edge wear, with remnants of card backing to the reverse, otherwise in excellent condition. Preserved in an archival sleeve.
 
A newly identified, unpublished design by John Leech for Surtees’s Mr Facey Romford’s Hounds (Bradbury & Evans, 1865), depicting Lucy Glitters, the novel’s celebrated heroine, riding side-saddle in her distinctive garb, veil streaming as she leads the field. The composition closely parallels Leech’s engraved plates “Lucy Glitters showing the way” and “Let me try then, said Lucy”, but differs in the arrangement of background figures—indicating this is an earlier working version or alternate design prepared for the Dalziel Brothers before the artist’s death.
 
Leech died in October 1864 with roughly half the Romford designs complete; Hablot K. Browne (“Phiz”) was engaged to finish the series, resulting in several finished Leech drawings remaining unused or unpublished. This sheet, numbered for the engravers and bearing Leech’s autograph, represents one of those final watercolours from the artist’s last months.
 
The identification of Lucy Glitters can be made through her costume triad—blue riding dress, black top-hat, and yellow gloves—which appears nowhere else in Leech’s works and was the character’s calling card in this series.
 
A rare, unpublished autograph watercolour from Leech’s final year, directly linked to the engraved plates for Mr Facey Romford’s Hounds.