3-008-620 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

M. Durène's Fountain in the Horticultural Society's Gardens, [London], 1862. Engraving from a photograph by L. Birnstingl and Co. Fountain designed by Klagmann. 'The very animated figure at its apex has a cornucopia of very luscious fruits surely; for out of the midst of them the water gushes profusely; the female figures mounted on the seahorses in the lower basin are also supplied with baskets full of the same description of fruit, as from the centre pines (should they not be water melons) the water spouts with similar profusion. The seahorses champ their seaweed bridles and show capital training in the action of their finny hoofs, or whatever you please to call them. Above this basin...[are] allegorical figures of Architecture scrutinising the Great Exhibition building; Music, ready to tune up at intervals between the Horticultural band; Painting, preparing to take your portrait in water colours; and Engineering, admiring the really fine castings of the fountain itself, which have been transported all the way from the foundries of Haute Marne...mermaids, struggle to fix a small basin against the main pedestal, and masques, flowers, mouldings, and other incongruous ornaments are scattered about in the true Romantic and Rennaissance styles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.