| Product
Code |
: |
PUD NO_876-3_AE |
| Subject | : | Zoological Gardens - Calcutta |
| Size | : | 75 mm |
| Metal | : | Silver |
| Year | : | 1876 |
| Description | : | obv. Four elephants cavorting among jungle foliage, rev. A wide border made up of petals and fleur-de-lys interspersed with ornamentation. In a centre circle amongst flowery ornamentation in Urdu script : CALCUTTA ZOO GARDEN.
Two specimens seen, one with award on box and on edge : PRESENTED TO THE EAST INDIAN RAILWAY CO BY THE COMMITTEE MARCH 1892.
The zoo was established on forty acres of land in south Calcutta near Belvedere, the residence of the Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal until 1911. The gardens were inaugurated on 1 January 1886 by the Prince of Wales, opened to the public in May and within three or four years became one of the most popular institutions in Calcutta reaching 180,000 visitors a year. A grey granite monument on the grounds has the inscription ‘This obelisk was erected by public subscription to the memory of Carl Louis Schwendler, who died 6th January, 1882, and by whose energy and enterprise this Zoological Garden was established in 1876’. Schwendler was an Englishman of German descent, an official in the Post and Telegraph Department. The first animals in the zoo were fire huge Galapagos tortoise, two of which were still alive when this book went to print. |
