Look at her! Just look at her shining in the sun. Amazing.
Big Top Parade Baraboo WI
The Lion Tableau was most likely built around 1880. 1880! By the Sebastian Wagon Works company for the Adam Forepaugh Circus.
Originally the wagon had a telescoping platform with figures of St. George fighting a dragon. The figures were removed and made into a pony float around 1889 and the wagon was transformed into the bandwagon she would remain.
Staging wagons for the Big Top Parade
In 1890, the pony and the bandwagon were bought by the Ringling Brothers. She was the lead bandwagon in parades and pulled by an eight horse team until retirement in 1915.
The craftsmanship, the detail, the gold leaf... hard to describe how incredible
As many wagons did, the beauty transferred hands a number of times over its life. In 1927, the Ringlings' sold it to G.W.Christy. Who applied a new coating of gold leaf to the carvings and painted the body white. White! Hard to imagine. Next the wagon moved to the Cole Brothers in 1935.
She (yes I think of it as a she) was used in holiday parades in 1946 when the Block & Kuhl department store purchased her. Then she moved onto Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co when they bought out Block & Kuhl. Still following along!? In 1961 she found a resting place when donated to the Circus World Museum.
Front to back, perfection
In 2000, she was restored to her original Ringling Brothers colors and gold leafed again. Magnificient. Blindingly shiny. And fit to lead more parades.
From the feathers on the bird to the teeth inside the lion's mouth, detail, detail, detail
During a tour of the wagon pavillion at Circus World Museum one time, the guide referred to the wagon as the Lion & Mirror Bandwagon and I have thought of her as such ever since. Lion & Mirror. Could not be more true.
Overall: Length 22' 3" Width 8' 4" Height 10'3" Weight 8,440 lbs
8,440 lbs !
July 2019, crazy hot day at Circus Wold Museum
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