Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A good Staffordshire model of Jumbo the elephant 19th century, the ill-fated creature standing four square on a titled oval base, his long trunk curled as it touches the ground, glazed in a greyish brown, 27cm high.

Cf. P D Gordon Pugh, Staffordshire Portrait Figures, p.426. Jumbo became the highlight of Phileas Barnum's circus in 1882, touring the US and Canada. On September 15th 1885 Jumbo was hit by a train, which was derailed, crushing him to death and breaking his skull in over a hundred places. Barnum had a taxidermist immortalize the 6 ton elephant and later told the world that Jumbo had charged the train in an attempt to save Alice, a smaller beast whom he billed as Jumbo's 'widow'.