Monday, May 19, 2008

Copper Lithograph/Metal Plate Hand colored--1833

I collect lithographs, and specifically went to the antique flea market/auction yesterday to purchase this one of a Tarpan. For historic purposes "artists rendition" are important, if taken lightly and with some skepticism. When Ringling Bros. toured their famous "unicorn", there was a public outcry and calling them fraud, with a massive animal rights objection, which Ringling initiated, and turned the Unicorn tour into the most financially successful show in their history. When people would tell me, "that's just a goat, it's not a horse." I would ask them, "how do you know what one looked like. According to mythology nobody has seen one. But they do describe it as an animal with cloven hooves, of medium build, with curly hair, and one horn in the middle of it forehead. That would upset them, and they would call me a fraud. William Conway did a wonderful paper on the theory of, what if a Unicorn was found and how zoologist and scientists would class it, and how Zoos would feed and care for it. He based his paper on written descriptions of the animal in Greek mythology. Did you see or read that paper Ben? I believe it was printed in the AAZPA Newletter, and I can't find reference to it anywhere.

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