Word: gryphon
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...They very soon came upon a Gryphon . . . (If you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture)." - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Manhattan collectors last week came upon Lewis Carroll's fantastic Gryphon in all his original scaly glory. Up at auction was the largest group in the U.S. of the great Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice, Through the Looking-Glass and other drawings (collection of the late Bronson Winthrop, onetime law partner of War Secretary Henry L. Stim-son). The Gryphon, as well as the King and Queen of Hearts...
Humor and fantasy are as characteristic of medieval art as piety and sound workmanship. All four merge in the series of aquamaniles which Dr. Swarzenski calls his zoo. Once used for ceremonial washing, these bronze ewers include centaurs, lions, horses, unicorns. One gryphon holds a small human figure in his mouth as faucet. Even George Apley would have collected them out of predilection rather than duty...