A Fast Team -- "Out on the Loose"

The artist John Cameron provided Currier & Ives with many images of horse-related subjects so they could be produced as popular lithographs. In this print, a pair of bay horses--with wild eyes though they are equipped with blinders--race on a dirt road with all their feet off the ground as they pull a one-seat carriage. Positioned at an angle within the image, the horse-drawn carriage heads towards the left (i.e.towards the viewer); its speed causes billowing dust to rise up behind the carriage (at far right). Squeezed together onto the seat are two men. The driver, who sports a moustache and goatee, wears a red cap, a red tie and a black jacket. The driver seems unconcerned that he is sitting astride the right leg of his passenger; he nonchalantly holds the reins and whip in his right hand. With his right arm gripping the driver's waist, the passenger (probably drunkenly) leans a bit while he extends his left arm and hand holding a lit cigar and sings (or shouts) open-mouthed. The back of the passenger's blue jacket flaps behind him; he also wears a yellow vest, light gray trousers, and a dark hat. Green grass lines the road as the background.

Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), who established a successful New York-based lithography firm in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century America. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the accounting-savvy brother-in-law of Nathaniel's brother Charles, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American landscapes, rural and city views, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life, comic situations, and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments.