Sue Coe
Chunee, the Elephant Who Wouldn't Die

Chunee, the Elephant Who Wouldn't Die
Chunee, the Elephant Who Wouldn't Die
Chunee, the Elephant Who Wouldn't Die
ArtistBritish, born 1951, active United States
CultureBritish
Titles
  • Chunee, the Elephant Who Wouldn't Die
Date2018
MediumOffset lithograph on wove paper, edition 64/100
DimensionsImage/Sheet: 19 7/8 × 28 1/8 in. (50.5 × 71.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Cynthia Nourse Thompson
Object number2019.673
Non exposé

Explore Further

Object Type
Provenance Research Ongoing Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Inscribed in graphite, bottom left corner: 64/100.
Recto: Inscribed in black printed ink, below image matrix, bottom edge: London’s first proper zoo, was at the Exeter Exchange in Covent Garden. Chunee the Elephant, lived for 17 years on the second story along with other animals in iron cages. Chunee did tricks, [space] taking off hats/of customers with his trunk, and returning them. Lord Byron said he wished Chunee was his butler. On Feb 1826, Chunee had a septic tusk and stopped doing tricks. He started to break out of his cage, and fearing he would fall/through the floor, they tried to kill him with arsenic, which he refused. Soldiers shot 152 musket balls into him, and his agonized cries could be heard down the Strand. He tried to do his tricks. He was finally killed by a sabre/attached to a pole, and was known as ‘the elephant who refused to die.’ This image was printed by a Heidelberg offset press, that . weighs the same as Chunee.
Recto: Signed and dated in graphite, right bottom edge: Sue Coe 2018
Recto: Two Chopmarks, stacked vertically, at lower right edge: [unknown] / The University of the Arts MFA Book Arts + Printmaking

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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