Monday, September 20, 2010

Arcitectural details of the Van Norden Carriage House


The 1907 Van Norden Carriage House boasts its original Seth Thomas clock. The Seth Thomas company itself dates back to 1813. The clock has 4 working faces and is perched atop a restored and historically correct seamed roof.

Rear of 1907 Van Norden Carriage House shows doors to hay loft and pulley for raising bales. The architect for the this building, Frank Rooke, also built Claremont Stables in Manhattan.


The original 1838 Jay Mansion Door is on the left and the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House door is on the right.

Warner Van Norden was a thoughtful student of architectural styles and in building the Carriage House and Zebra House, deliberately incorporated important Greek Revival design elements of the original house for continuity. Rather than copy these details exactly, they were stylized and enlarged.

Back views of the Van Norden Carriage house, before and after restoration.



NY financier, Warner Van Norden and the Jay Estate Zebras

This photo most likely predates the building of the Zebra House in 1907 by architect Frank Rooke. Van Norden was interested in breeding horses and zebras towards producing a superior working breed. He imported the animals from Abyssinia along with many other unique livestock from other parts of the world. Van Norden had a strong interest in Zoology and was a member of the NY Zoological Society to which he gifted many specimens.

According to newspapers in 1906, Van Norden purchased 5 zebras to try and substantiate the heredity theories of W. Ewart, a professor of natural history in Edinburgh. For their comfort and health, he began work on a zebra house at his estate in Rye complete with a paddock, steam heating and temeperature controls as well as a drinking fountain.


Warner La Montagnie Van Norden kept and bred zebras on his property in Rye, New York on the Jay Estate.

Like the Duke of Bedford in England, he was very interested in zoology.
Inlfuenced by the animal trainer and breeder, Carl Hagenbeck, whom he most likely encountered at theb St. Louis Exposition of 1904, he was interested in the scientific aspect of domesticating zebras.

He commissioned architect Frank Rooke to build a zebra house for him, pictured below.


The Classical Revival "Zebra Barn" was commissioned by Jay estate owner Warner Van Norden circa 1907 to house his collection of rare animals. It was designed by architect Frank Rooke, the same architect who designed the carriage house(front view) next to the barn above and in the photo below.

From Mike Naughton--Showfolks Report


http://showfolkmike.blogspot.com/

Pablo Noel



Cryptomundo

The great web site Cryptomundo has some additional information available on "Black Tigers." Type black tigers in the search bar on their home page. I still can't understand why if pictures were taken, in 2007 there has been nothing apparently released.


Three rare Melanistic Indian tigers have been spotted in the Similipal National Park in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district.

Official sources said that rare black tigers were spotted at the state's only tiger reserve during the ongoing tiger census through camera-trap method. The census is being conducted by the surveyors from Wildlife Institute of India by installing cameras in 30 different locations in the core area of the 2750 sq km national park.

"The cameras captured the pictures of one female and two cubs of black colour," the sources said, adding the survey team had so far captured pictures of six tigers of whom three were black in colour.

The tigers had light brown coat with jet black stripes which is due to genetic reasons. "The sample census is being conducted only in 120 sq km area," said chief wildlife warden Suresh Mohanty. The core area inside the park is spread over 850 sq km.

While describing existence of black tigers in Similipal National Park as 'usual', Mohanty said. Noted tiger expert and former chief wildlife warden of Orissa Saroj Kumar Patnaik told PTI that the black tigers were earlier spotted way back in 1993 at Pedagarh in the park area. This apart, the black tigers were spotted for the second time in 2004 at Debasthal in the core area, Patnaik said.

Tower Lions


A pair of lion skulls excavated from the moat around the Tower of London and dating to the medieval period belong to an extinct subspecies of Barbary lion which died out in the early 1920s, a study has found.

An analysis of the DNA extracted from the skulls has found that both lions share the same genetic traits as the large subspecies which had distinctive black manes and once lived in the Morocco region of north-west Africa until it disappeared nearly a century ago.

The two skulls were first recovered from the Tower’s moat during excavations in 1936 and 1937 but the precise geographical origin of the famous lions of the Royal Menagerie – first established by King John who reigned between 1199 and 1216 – was unknown.

“Until now we didn’t have any strong evidence that they were from North Africa. There was no documentary evidence for instance. They could have come from Asia or even from other parts of the Mediterranean,” said Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum in London.

“Lions are very charismatic large cats that have been imported into Europe for various purposes since early historic times. We’ve not known, however, until now the exact geographical origin of the animals found in London,” Dr Sabin said.

“Our results are the first genetic evidence to clearly confirm that lions found during excavations at the Tower of London originated in north Africa,” he added.

Radiocarbon tests on the skulls show that one is dated to between 1280 and 1385 and the other is dated to between 1420 and 1480. Both were young males of about three or four years of age and could have been born in the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London rather than been shipped directly from north Africa, Dr Sabin said.

“Barbary lions were probably the largest of all the subspecies of lion. They had very long, black, shaggy manes and would have been very imposing. Visitors to the King would have had to pass through Lion Tower where the cats were kept in cages,” he said.

Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, who carried out the genetic analysis of the lions’ bones said that a contiguous population of lions once stretched from north Africa through the Middle East to India, until the growth of the Egyptian civilisation about 4,000 years ago divided the lions into separating breeding populations. “Western north Africa was the nearest region to Europe to sustain lion populations until the early 20th Century, making it an obvious and practical source for medieval merchants,” Dr Yamaguchi said.

“Apart from a tiny population in northwest India, lions had been practically exterminated outside sub-Saharan Africa by the turn of the 20th Century.”

The Royal Menagerie was first established in Woodstock near Oxford before being relocated to the Tower of London. The first residents were three leopards sent to Henry III by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1235. It later on housed a number of exotic animals and was effectively the private zoo of successive kings and queens until it was closed by the Duke of Wellington in 1835 and the contents transferred to Regent’s Park to become London Zoo.

“Although we have one of the best mammal collections in the world here at the Natural History Museum, few physical remains survive of the Royal Menagerie,” Dr Sabin said.

“Direct animal trade between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa was not developed until the 18th Century, so our results provide new insights into the patterns of historic animal trading,” he said.

Tower Lions????

Above, Alexander and Craterus fighting a lion. Alexander went on two such hunts, the Sidonian lion hunt (in Phoenicia, 332 BC) and the lion hunt in Basista (a.k.a. Bazaira, Sogdiana, in 328/327 BC). Herodotus recorded how Xerxes’ Persian invasion army of 480 BC was attacked by lions while bivouacking on the eastern fringes of Greece and Macedonia.

Loren Coleman poses this most intriguing thought on the Cryptomundo website:

The question of lions in Europe and specifically lions in England is not a fully answered mystery. Developing answers to one set of questions may merely open the door to other riddles. When two lion skulls were found in the Tower of London’s moat during excavations in the 1930s, the precise origins of these famous “Royal Lions” were undetermined.

Research now reveals the Tower lions were allegedly “Barbary lions,” but I want to push the inquiry beyond the obvious answer. What if these genetically-similar-to-Barbary-lions were instead Pleistocene survivors that were still to be found in England?

It is known that the relationship between Cave lions, Barbary Lions, and the Lions of Xerxes and Alexander were interwoven. Their physical and genetic characteristics were closer to each other than to sub-Saharan lions, except for the genetically distinct Cape Lion.

Barbary lion illustration above from 1898 and a "Barbary lion" below today descended from a long line of captive bred Barbary lions. The Barbary lion has been declared extinct in the wild.

Tower Lions


http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7300000/newsid_7307900?redirect=7307929.stm&news=1&bbram=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&asb=1 
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Lion Tower--Tower of London--London, England

Above is the Middle Tower's today, and a model of them below, and also the Lion Tower. In the photo above, the remains of the Lion Tower are pictured on the right, at the foot of the Middle Towers.

The Lion Tower, reached from Tower Hill via a causeway across the moat which surrounded it, formed the first major feature of the route into the castle and the first serious obstacle to an attacker. It took the form not of a true tower, but of a vast semi-circular enclosure, surrounded by a battlemented curtain wall. This arrangement provided the widest possible field of fire over Tower Hill and to the west, and would give archers an opportunity to scatter all but the most determined assault at the first attempt. Built largely of Caen stone from Normandy (France), it is the earliest known masonry example of this type of building in England.

Beyond the enclosure, linked to it by a drawbridge, was the twin-towered Middle Tower gatehouse (the Middle Tower), behind which is a long causeway across the main moat to the Byward Tower gatehouse and the castle proper. Over the following centuries, largely due to its curious use, the medieval Lion Tower gradually disappeared under an accretion of later buildings and its moat was gradually filled in. In 1853 the buildings were finally demolished and, a little later, the building which is now the West Gate Shop was put up on part of its site. Today, however, part of the medieval stonework has been re-exposed and its outline marked out in the paving.



The keeping of the menagerie at the Tower of London began at least as early as the reign of King John, as a payment to the Constable of the Tower for the support of the keeper and his charges is recorded in 1210. The first identifiable animals, however, arrived under Henry III as diplomatic gifts, in the fashion of the time, from foreign sovereigns. In 1235 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III presented three leopards, no doubt a play on Henry's Coat of Arms - three leopards passant on a red ground. Sixteen years later a 'white bear' - presumably a polar bear - was sent along with its keeper by the King of Norway: in 1255 the King received from Louis IX of France the most exotic beast of all, an African elephant, for which a special house was swiftly improvised. The Menagerie continued to flourish, amusing a succession of sovereigns and, in later centuries, becoming an increasingly popular attraction for ordinary visitors, until the transferal of many animals to the newly-formed London Zoo in 1831. The menagerie was finally closed in 1835.


I highly recommend a fascinating book titled, THE MEDICI GIRAFFE, authored in 2006 by Marina Belozerskaya (Little, Brown and Company), for anyone interested in a history of the practice of gifting King's, Ruler's, and Head's of State with animal's from their countries. When many of these animals had never been seen before, it was a gift greater then a boat load of gold and precious gems. Kirkus Review: "A lively account of how exotic animals have helped further the political ends of princes and potentates, from the Ptolemys to Chairman Mao....." If there is something in this world more exciting then Animal Training, Zoological Archeology and Zoological Architecture, I sure don't know what it is.


The letter "a" in the illustration above, drawn in 1880 is the Lion Tower of the Tower of England complex.

When you observe a state road crew mucking about for years repairing a pot holed road, it is almost inconceivable to me that medieval man, without the use of trucks, road graders, etc. could build an incredible marvel such as this, and most of it is still standing!!!!!! Some day's it is hard to convince myself that man has advanced and a video game is offered as proof.

Tower of London--London, England

A Royal Menagerie was established at the tower in the 13th century, possibly as early as 1204 during the reign of King John, and probably stocked with animals from an earlier menagerie started in 1125 by Henry I at his palace in Woodstock, near Oxford; William of Malmesbury reported that Henry had lions, leopards, lynxes and camels among other animals there.[11] Its year of origin is often stated as 1235, when Henry III received a wedding gift of three leopards (so recorded, although they may have been lions) from Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1264, they were moved to the Bulwark, which was duly renamed the Lion Tower, near the main western entrance. It was opened as an occasional public spectacle in the reign of Elizabeth I. A lion skull was radiocarbon dated to between 1280 and 1385, making it the earliest medieval big cat known in Britain.[12]
The menagerie was open to the public by the 18th century; admission was a sum of three half-pence or the supply of a cat or dog for feeding to the lions.[13] This was where William Blake saw the tiger which may have inspired his poem The Tyger. The menagerie's last director, Alfred Cops, who took over in 1822, found the collection in a dismal state but restocked it and issued an illustrated scientific catalogue. Partly for commercial reasons and partly for animal welfare, the animals were moved to the Zoological Society of London's London Zoo when it opened. The last of the animals left in 1835, and most of the Lion Tower was demolished soon after, although Lion Gate remains.
The Tower of London housed a polar bear in 1252, which was a gift from the King of Norway.

Incredible!!!!!!!!!



This is just astounding, and was released today. It shores up hope, who know's, that a Yeti, or the multitude of speculated animal species may actually exist, and just haven't been discovered yet.