Zebra Art

A zebra glistens under the arches and is the creation of the Michael Joo which he called "Stubbs (Absorbed)" which is a reference to George Stubb's portrait of a zebra , an animal which was kept in the British royal family's menagerie after it was gifted to Queen Charlotte.  Joo was struck by the zebra's incongruous English countryside setting in the painting.

It may not be obvious in my photographs but Joo's zebra has a highly reflective surface which is meant to absorb the external environment of the sculpture and he says he would love to exhibit it in a forest.  Stubb's 1763 portrait was so detailed that zoologists from a later century could identity it as a Cape Mountain Zebra, the smallest of the species.

The mountain zebra was the choice of another artist so it must have been why Jonathan Kingdon's "Hartmann's Mountain Zebra" was placed nearby. There is a bit of a scientific dispute as to whether the Cape and Hartmann are two similar distinct species or the same one. The person to ask would definitely be Jonathan Kingdon for not only is he an artist and sculptor but also a zoologist and science author. It was while putting together his 'An Atlas of Evolution in Africa' that he asked himself the question - what are zebra stripes for? He continues "After months and years of observation in many parts of East Africa and quantitative experiments with painted stripe panels I concluded that stripes, for zebras, had become a sort of bonding device... served to make any zebra attractive. An important quality in the progressive socialisation of a famous curmudgeonly mammal"

I like the sweeping mane on the sculpture and whatever the zebra stripes are for they are always mesmerising so here is the real thing - Hartmann's Mountain Zebra. 

By Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at Z here

 

Zebra Grate Polish

Of course the first thing I noticed on this display of old enamel signs on a fence at the Blists Hill Victorian Town open air museum was the Z (it helped that it was on a bright yellow background). That elusive end letter of the alphabet for ABC Wednesday was sorted by the Zebra Grate Polish sign (a substance launched in 1890 by Reckitts).   It was one of the housewife's tasks to polish up the grate to a gleam, commonly called blackleading   The routine was old newspapers spread out in front of the grate, for it could be a messy business, and then the paste applied evenly all over the object in question, which would be a fireplace or the more elaborate cast iron range, then came the hard work of using the polishing brush to bring up the sparkling gleam.

Reckitt and Sons marketed their product in a similar non-descriptive way as the other famous marketing brands of the era such as Lever's Sunlight Soap and Coleman's Mustard.  The Zebra of course appeared on their tins and on the advertising which

often portrayed cute children in combination with  a zebra called Zebo.

but sometimes there was not a zebra in sight, only stripes. 

While trying to find some images to go with my photograph for this post I came across a great lamentation that modern day grate polish for things such as wood burning stoves does not give the same results as the old Zebra or Zebo products. The conclusion was that you would have to recreate it from scratch.  It originally consisted of pure black graphite finely ground, carbon black, a binding agent and a solvent to keep it fluid for application.  The problem with modern products is that they have a water based binding agent to make them idiot proof (and additionally absolve the manufacturer from any disaster involving their customers in chemicals)  however the fact that it is water based means it does not enter deeply enough into the substrate of the cast iron.  Who knew I would learn all that while trying to find images for an ABC post.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at Z here

  

ABC Wednesday - Zebra

 

Got to keep an eye open for prowling predators when you are a Zebra. We live on grasslands, savannas, woodlands, scrubland and hills in Africa but I'm a long way from home here in England.

Not sure if my stripes are giving all the camouflage I need in this Skimmia, but my main predator the lion is colour blind so I'm blending in. I in contrast have perfect sight and hearing.  Aren't my stripes wonderful. You humans may think we are all the same but each of us has individual stripes.

Coast clear and down to the water hole, always a tricky moment.  If there are a herd of us when we run away the mass of vertical stripes running in all directions can be a wonderful and confusing sight.

What I go through to get a decent cup of tea.  Perhaps I'll take time out to read about my homeland and take in some cosy crime with  Mma Ramotswe who is investigating suspicious crimes in "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive". She loves a good cup of bush tea.  Or perhaps I'll write up my adventures

on my owner's laptop.  Well I say owner but don't mean it, we zebras unlike our close relatives the horse have never been domesticated. It is said that our nature is too unpredictable and tend to panic when under stress. We only pretend, zebras are very brave.  That is all from me Ziggy Zebra, and round 7 of ABC Wednesday.  Hope to see you again in Round 8.

Zip across to ABC Wednesday and see more words beginning with Z