Tuesday 17 August 2010

JUMBO DISPLAY

Just before the Elephant Parade left London in June, the entire herd were corralled in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where thousands of pachyderm-lovers went to to bid them farewell – including me!

There they were, lined up, row by row...

Police Line-up

And here are a few of the those (not previously sighted on this blog) that caught my eye, beginning, appropriately considering the setting for their gathering, with a Chelsea Pensioner Elephant...

Chelsea Pensioner
There were, amongst the ranks, elephants disguised as other animals...

Cow

Tiger
Birds...

Swan

Peacock (2)
And even bugs...

Ladybird (2)
Not mention, flowers...

Tuplips

Dandelion (2)
Fruit...

Strawberry
And vegetables...

Peppers
Literary tributes included an elephant covered with quotes from Ian Fleming's James Bond books...

007
And one for fans of Sherlock Holmes... "It's elephantry, my dear Watson!"

Sherlock (Elephantry)
And a particular favourite of mine featuring a hare and moon...

Hare & Moon (2)
...with, in the eye of the hare, the sign of the Infanta de Castile – the Elephant and Castle...

Eye & Elephant
I even, finally, managed to track down the elusive Cloudia who made her first widely publicised appearance going round on the London Eye and then (presumably with help) moved around town to different locations.

Cloudia
And then it was time to go...

"TAXI!!
"

Taxi


Images: Brian Sibley © 2010. You can visit all the elephants I herded up (284 of them!) on my flickr set, Elephant Parade.

Jack

8 comments:

SharonM said...

Fabulous - I'm so sorry I missed them.
Every garden should have one.

Steven Hartley said...

Hmm--no Dumbo?

Brian Sibley said...

Probably no one wanted to risk infringing Disney copyright!

Steven Hartley said...

Yeah probably, you've got a point!!

Anonymous said...

I like the original celluloid versions of the Disney cartoon features. I think the digital "restorations" on DVD are more like computer colorization.I don't think the colors represent what the original artists intended.

Brian Sibley said...

Not sure who you are, 'Anonymous' (I don't encourage anonymous comments), but in reply to your point: it is quite hard for us to be altogether sure what the original colours were originally like since most of us have only ever seen much-degraded prints. But the argument will no doubt continue...

JK said...

Your Flickr photos say they were 'taken on June 25, 2010.'

I check my diary: I was also taking pachyderm photos that same sunny afternoon, on my London holiday!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5076526&id=707561405

What a shame we missed each among among the elephant trunks.

Brian Sibley said...

How frustrating! Wish we'd managed to meet up at the royal elephant hospital... :(

Anyway, I do hope you're well and happy. Fondest good wishes, my old friend! :)