Racing.- Munnings (Sir Alfred) [The Autobiography], 3 vol., comprising: An Artist's Life, reprint, 1952; The Second Burst, reprint, 1951; The Finish, first edition, 1952, the first with good presentation inscription from the author to Colonel and Mrs Gray on front pastedown, laminated dust-jacket, the second with longer presentation inscription to the same recipients and signed by Munnings on half-title, covers cockled, dust-jacket worn, torn and tape-repaired, the third with pencil inscription to the same recipients on front endpaper and with pencil sketch around the printed illustration on half-title, dust-jacket worn and tape-repaired, all with plates, original cloth, 8vo, 1951-52; together with a series of correspondence between Munnings and Gray relating to the painting of Happy Laughter, including a fine 4pp. A.L.s. by Munnings opening "With a Parker pen costing me £4 I write to you , Sir, whom I compare to a nasty, ferocious hound baying a poor old dying stag in a stream...If you saw my two studios here Sir, you'd go dotty. How & when the various, would be masterpieces will ever be finished I can't imagine.", a 4pp. typed poem by Douglas Gray with numerous corrections, entitled "An Ode to Sir Alfred Munnings" and a 9-stanza autograph poem in pencil in response from Munnings, and further letters relating to the painting and the debate over payment or a mare in lieu - Gray acting all the time in his capacity as manager of Hadrian Stud on behalf of Major David Wills, the owner (3 vol. plus folder)

⁂ The set is inscribed to Colonel and Mrs [Douglas] Gray, of Hadrian Stud, Newmarket. Munnings writes in vol.1 "This Colonel may manage a stud, but he more than managed me. He pushed me into making impossible efforts to paint Happy Laughter. Sept 21st 1953". In volume 2 Munnings goes further, writing " A masterful man this Colonel. I didn't want to paint Happy Laughter but by God!! he forced me to do it. He has no mercy on a poor artist. Alfred Munnings. September in the Equinox of 1953". And in the final volume he writes "For Colonel & Mrs Gray who will NEVER find time to read this book. September 1953". Munnings also embellishes the illustration on the half-title with clouds and rays of sun, and beneath the printed "The Finish" he writes "of Saint Alfred" [presumably referring to his being considered over-worked]

Happy Laughter was a chestnut mare who won the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1953, following this up with 3 other wins including the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, before being retired to stud.