NA T I ONA L MU S EUM OF AN T I QU I T I E S F o u n d e d 1 7 8 6
Fat Floppy Fluff - the giant lagomorph Limited Edition Canvas on Board of 95 Image Size 28” x 22 1/2 ” Framed £650
FAT FLOPPY FLUFFS - THE GIANT LAGOMORPH 1850-1851 England
In 1864, Lewis Carroll was passing a gallery in Oxford which was hosting an event by Charles Burroughs. Charles, spoke about his encounter with one of the Empire’s least known animals, the Giant Lagomorphs, more commonly known as Fat Floppy Fluffs. Usually only seen around tea-time they love nothing more than sitting around with a cup of tea on warm summer nights. Charles followed a Fat Floppy Fluff after discovering one right under his nose on Wimbledon Common. At first he thought he had discovered a Womble, but closer inspection revealed a rounder body and an absence of tweed. His trek led him to a large hole underneath the roots of a twisted Bongleberry bush. One slip and he fell in, only stopping when he landed several hundred feet down the hole on a large moss bed. He was curious to discover more, and after some fiddling about with grow and shrink potions, finally found his way into a magic garden full of childhood memories. The Fat Floppy Fluff was nowhere to be seen, but a passing Leicestershire Cat pointed out the way from this land of wonder back to the green grass of the common. Lewis Carroll, obviously moved by this, decided to write up Charles’ story, but to make it more plausible disguise it as fiction. It’s only because of the discovery of this painting many years later that we can finally say that Wonderland was real and Alice in Wonderland is probably the best non-fictional account about the Fat Floppy Fluffs and its environment.
Illuminated Fairy Furry Floopaloo Limited Edition Canvas on Board of 95 Image Size 14 1/2 ” x 32” Framed £550
ILLUMINATED FAIRY FURRY FLOOPALOO 1880 Angola
When his sight returned, the Illuminated Fairy Furry Floopaloo was gone. Charles never forgot, and during a speech in 1880 he coined the word ‘fairy lights’ to describe the rhythmic movement through the trees as he tracked the Floopaloo. A year later in 1881, the Savoy Theatre, London was the first building the world to be lit entirely by electricity. Sir Joseph Swan, inventor of the incandescent light bulb, supplied about 1,200 of his lamps, and a year later, the Savoy owner, Richard D’Oyly Carte, equipped the principal fairies with miniature lighting supplied by the Swan Electric Lamp Company, for the opening night of Iolanthe on 25th November 1882. The archive of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company states that the term ‘fairy lights’ subsequently came into common use after this stage production.
Spotted from a distance one night, this notoriously reclusive Impossimal had only been the subject of local hearsay. After tracking the animal by the means of following it’s twinkly antlers, Charles Burroughs watched in amazement as the beast stopped, turned and smiled. This first ever contact with an Illuminated Fairy Floopaloo was sadly also our last; the Impossimal ruffled its fur until a spark of static electricity lit the antler lights to such a brightness that Charles was temporarily blinded.
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