The White Horse Final
press photograph, 1923
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, Wrong shape: a 15% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyThe 28th of April, 1923: the first final at the new Empire Stadium, attendance officially 126,047 and unofficially the whole of London. The crowd swallowed the pitch entire, and into it rode Billie, a grey police horse, to walk the touchlines back into existence. The photograph — one pale animal restoring geometry to a hundred thousand people — became the most famous crowd picture in British sport, the terrace as protagonist. The horse was actually grey; he photographs white against the mass, and the mass is why the picture exists. The game belongs to whoever shows up, and on that Saturday everyone did.
- Maker
- press photograph
- Date
- 1923
- Medium of the original
- Photograph
- Original held by
- Unknown press photographer, 1923 · Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Unknown press photographer, 1923 · Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-01077
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 12 x 8 in | 123 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 14 x 11 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 16 x 12 in | 84 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | 82 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 24 x 16 in | 61 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 18 in | 56 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | 49 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 36 x 24 in | 41 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 30 in | 33 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 28 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | 24 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,477 x 1,008 px, srgb, sRGB IEC61966-2.1
- Tone
- Darks 45, lights 221 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 149.22
- Notes
- Neutrals lean toward green: the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
The Terraces
Before television, the game was ink.
All 53 pieces from The Terraces
