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Lot 158

A Victorian black japanned and parcel gilt cast iron 'Jumbo' the circus elephant novelty doorstop

23 – 24 February 2021, 10:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,530 inc. premium

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A Victorian black japanned and parcel gilt cast iron 'Jumbo' the circus elephant novelty doorstop

the elephant in profile with decorative saddle and headdress on moulded swept rectangular base inscribed JUMBO, the hollowed back with diamond registration mark, 29cm high, 32cm wide, 9cm deep approximately

Footnotes

Jumbo, also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan, probably in the late 1850s. Circa 1860, Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and then transferred in 1865 to London Zoo in England where he captured the city's and then the whole country's hearts. Despite a huge public protest, Jumbo was subsequently sold to P. T. Barnum, who took him to the United States for exhibition in 1882. Sadly Jumbo was killed in a tragic train accident after a performance at Barnum's circus in Canada 1885. The descriptive word jumbo derived from Jumbo the elephant is a term that later entered the Oxford dictionary used for something of a colossal size.

Additional information

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