Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

An unexpected pleasure in a South London park is to encounter these replica dinosaurs posing on their island enclosure. When Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace migrated from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill, the area was greatly remodelled and the dinosaur display was one of many new ancillary attractions in what would become Crystal Palace Park. It was a great mid-Victorian project that rested on the popularity of palaeontology and the discovery of ever more exotic fossil records. At the same time it was conceived to meet the Victorian public appetite for bizarre attractions, making for a perfect combination of high mindedness and sensationalist entertainment.

The task of design and construction fell to Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Drawings were produced in consultation with scientific experts and manufacture took place in Hawkins’s Sydenham workshop illustrated here. The figures were cast in concrete using moulds derived from original clay models. When complete they were installed on a string of three islands and following a celebratory dinner hosted by Hawkins in the interior of the Iguanadon, opened to the public in 1854. The public imagination was instantly captured and has remained so to the present day.

Conservation is a massive challenge and the most recent efforts in 2003 and 2016 brought much needed improvements. Since 2007 the site has been protected by a Grade I listing from Historic England. A community-led charitable trust (Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs) has brought fresh energy to ensuring long term survival since its formation in 2013. Their latest project is the construction of a bridge which will enable guided visits much closer access (under supervision). It seems the funding is in place to achieve this in the near future.

Flying High with the Post

The Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin holds a fine collection of ships, boats, planes and trains but this exhibit, Große Post-Luft-Kugel possesses a special sense of wonder. It’s a model hot air balloon built from a speculative illustration by Balthasar Antoine Dunker (1746-1807) made in 1783, the year in which the Montgolfier Brothers made their first successful flight. Quick to seize on the commercial potential Dunker described a fantastical vision of a postal service balloon with all the facilities of a small town suspended beneath. Defended by massive cannon and equipped with all the necessities of life it was designed for intercontinental mail distribution. Impossible staircases connect the various pods that dangle in space and include a place of worship, a detention centre for offenders and a livestock unit for food production. A massive cask is also provided - whether for wine or ale is not specified. Observation decks enable privileged passengers to enjoy the exhilarating views. A small pilot balloon is attached for the purpose of forward reconnaissance and last-mile deliveries, enabling the mother-ship to continue its high-altitude cruise. All this and more is faithfully translated into an immaculately detailed scale model that recaptures the wonder of powered flight.

Within a year Dunker’s print had been co-opted by an anonymous British printmaker. The anglicised balloon bore an image of the Crown and a British Lion perched on the top, gripped an Admiral’s flag. There’s a copy in the British Museum online collection – the BM classifies it as a satirical print, poking fun at republicanism. To my eyes it looks more like a simple case of plagiarism.

Hall’s Distemper

In the distant days of unregulated outdoor advertising these two heroes of the artisan class could be seen in cut-out form from the windows of passing trains, selflessly plodding through the landscape reminding the travelling public of the existence of Hall’s Distemper. Their journeys took them as far as the Indian sub-continent where this example was published in 1916 in the Times of India Annual. They were also modelled in miniature by Hornby Trains to add a note of documentary realism to an “O” gauge layout. Surviving examples are keenly sought by collectors prepared to pay more than £200 for a mint and boxed specimen.