The Unicorn & the dejected Lion

Few visitors to Cape Town, and just as few locals ever seem to notice the peculiar sculpture which appears on the gable of the Cultural History Museum at the top of Adderley Street.

It appears on the back of the building which faces Parliament street. The building itself has a varied history, having served as Slave quarters,  a Court, and would you believe, the House of Parliament for the Cape Colony.

The sculpture is apparently the work of Dutch sculptor Anton Anreith who lived and worked in the Cape whilst it was still a Dutch Colony.

The British occupied the Cape for the second time in 1806. At some point they commissioned a sculpture of the unicorn and the lion from Anreith. Needless to say, the British had in mind the usual powerful image of a lion as seen on coats of arms across the world. There could have been little doubt in the mind of the artist as to what was required.

Anton was, however, no fan of the British. No one was permitted to see the artist's work until its unveiling:

It goes without saying that the British were livered. When the artist was asked for an explanation he offered that this was his interpretation of the British Lion after years of British involvement in the Napoleonic Wars.

A bit thin perhaps. as explanations go...but it must have worked...since the dejected lion's apologetic visage remains with us to this day!!