Sources page biographical material

Part II. of Von dem Grossen Stein der Uhralten is Die zwölff Schlüssel ... and Der neundte Schlüssel is on p. 51, with 'folio 70' on it. In the centre of the circular part of this is a pattern of three hearts with serpents growing out of them and biting the next heart. Above this are a man and a woman, each nude and in a sitting position, with bottoms almost touching. Baltrušaitis mentions this in his discussion of 'two heads, four bodies' pictures, but I don't feel this is really a picture of that type. A different and less clear version of this picture in reproduced in the following.

Stanislas Klossowski de Rola. The Golden Game Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century. Thames & Hudson, 1998. This reproduces the entire Twelve Keys from: Michael Maier; Tripus aureus; Lucas Jennis, Frankfurt, 1618, and gives some discussion. P. 119 is the title page of the Valentine; p. 103 includes the Ninth Key; pp. 125-126 give explications of the Keys.

Roob (below), p. 678, from: D. Stolcius v. Stolcenberg; Viridarium chymicum; Frankfurt, 1624.

Adam McLean. The Silent Language The Symbols of Hermetic Philosophy Exhibition in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. In de Pelikaan, Amsterdam, 1994, p. 47, reproduced from: Johann Grasshoff; Dyas chymica tripartita; Lucas Jennis, Frankfurt, 1625.

Baltrušaitis, above, Fig. 103, but he cites: B. Valentino; Les Sept Clefs de Sagesse; vers 1413; via an 1891 book.

This three heart/serpent pattern is known as the Ouroboros or Ouroborus. McLean explains that man has three hearts: physical, soul and spiritual.

Basilius Valentius. Chymische Schriften. Hamburg, 1717. ??NYS -- reproduced in: Alexander Roob; Alchemie & Mystik Das Hermetische Museum; Taschen, Köln, et al., 1996, p. 676. Same picture as in De Macrocosmo, with some descriptive text. The circle of text is translated as: "Sol and Luna and Mars mit Jupiter jagen / Saturnus muss die Garne trage / Steltt Mercurius recht nach dem Wind / so wird Frau Venus Kind" (Sun and Moon and Mars hunt with Jupiter / Saturn must carry the net (or decoy) / Place Mercury correctly according to the Wind / then Frau Venus captures a child) and Roob says this is an alchemical description of the preparation of the 'Universal Medicine' from copper vitriol, which Basilius called the highest of all salts. Externally it is green, but inside it is fiery red from its father Mars, an oily balsam. He then gives lines 5-8 of the poem and says the hare is a known symbol for the fleetness of Mercury.
At Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, about 60km NE of Stuttgart, the pattern appears painted on the ceiling of a synagogue, from 1738/9 [Greeves (2000); Greeves (2001), with picture.] Sol Golomb notes that the commandment against making graven images is interpreted as referring to solid images and excepts decorative patterns even if they use animals.

The town of Hasloch (am Main), Bayern, about 70km SE of Frankfurt, uses the pattern as its town crest (colour photo of an 1842 example in [Greeves (2000)]).

C. J. P. Cave. The roof bosses in Chichester Cathedral. Sussex Archaeology 71 (1930) 1-9 & plate opp. p. 1. Photo 11 is a B&W picture, but not as sharp or clear as the current postcard. Discussion on p. 6 says the Boxgrove example is 'more boldly and better carved'. See Cave, 1948.

Jurgis Baltrušaitis. Le Moyen Age Fantastique,.... Op. cit. under China, above. Pp. 132 139 of the 1981 edition have many examples of three and four rabbits, four boys, etc. Fig. 96 gives small rabbit illustrations from Dunhuang (10th c.), Islamic vase from the Hermitage Museum (12th 13th c.), Lyon Cathedral (1310 20), Paderborn (15th c.), and Fig 97 is a large Dutch engraving, Lièvres a Oreilles Communes, of 1576 in the BN, Paris, with rabbits going anti-clockwise. He cites examples at Saint-Maurice de Vienne (15C); at the Hôtel de Cluny, at Saint-Benoit-le-Château (Loire) and says it is frequent in the east of France (Thiélouse, Xertigny), Switzerland (Abbey of Muototal), and in Germany (Munster, Paderborn). He cites a 1928 book for the pattern being a symbol of the Trinity. By the beginning of the 16C, he says it was used as a vignette by the printer Jacques Arnollet and as the sign of the Three Rabbits Inn (L'Hostellerie aux trois lapins). He gives some lines from a poem of the time:

Tournez et retournez et nous tournerons aussi,

Afin qu'a chacun de vous nous donnions du plaisir.

Et lorsque nous aurez tournés faites compte de nos oreilles,

C'est là que, sans rien déguiser, vous trouverez une merveille.

and says these or similar occur frequently in prints of the 16C and 17C, referring to the large Dutch engraving which has similar lines in Dutch and French around the border - but his reproduction (or the original) is truncated on the left. He cites an 1879 history of inn signs and seems to say this inn is in Lyon and that the author had also seen a version with three deer.

See Dead Dogs for further material.

C. J. P. Cave. Roof Bosses in Medieval Churches An Aspect of Gothic Sculpture. CUP, 1948. This has several hundred B&W plates. I have a reference to Cave's collection of photographs of roof-bosses and an index thereof at the Society of Antiquaries, so I looked up Cave at the Warburg and found this book.

Chapter VI: Beasts, birds and fish, pp. 69-75. On p. 71, he says: "There are a few rabbits or hares, it is difficult to tell which; the most curious are the three rabbits with only three ears between them, each rabbit sharing an ear with its neighbours; this device is found at Broadclyst, North Bovey (49), Chagford, Sampford Courtenay (182), Spreyton, South Tawton, Tavistock, and Widecombe-in-the-Moor, all villages on or not far from Dartmoor; at Selby there is a similar arrangement, but there is a fourth rabbit unconnected with the three.¹

¹ The three rabbits occur in stained glass at Long Melford. The same motif occurs in Paderborn Cathedral in Germany, on a window known as the Hare Window; see Walter Hotz, Mittelalterliche Groteskplastic (Leipsig), p. 47 (text) and p. 68 (plate); this window is even mentioned in Baedeker's Guide to North Germany."

Plate 1. Tickencote. This has three heads in a circle, but there is no interconnection.

Plate 30. Bristol Cathedral, north transept: Fish. This has three fish arranged in a triangular pattern, each overlapping the next.

Plate 49. North Bovey; rabbits.

Plate 182. Sampford Courtenay. Rabbits.

Plate 200. Selby. Triple face. [This has three faces looking forward, a bit to the right and a bit to the left, sharing four eyes. I have a photo of a similar keystone in Citta di Castello where the side faces are facing directly right and left. This seems to be a development from the Roman double-sided heads of Janus.]

Plate 300. Foliate Heads. Boxgrove.

Appendix I List of churches containing roof bosses. Pp. 181-222. He begins with a note: This list does not aim at completeness, .... Names of places which I have not visited personally are in square brackets.] He lists 208 sites, including: Bovey (North); Boxgrove Priory; Broadclyst ('evidently modern copies of old designs', but he doesn't say how many there are); Chagford ('two bosses ..., one much restored'); Cheriton Bishop; Chichester Cathedral (cites his: The roof bosses in Chichester Cathedral, Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. LXXI, 1940, above); Havant ('Two early thirteenth-century bosses in the chancel with affinities to those as Chichester and Boxgrove.' ??); Oxford, Christ Church ('four lion's bodies joined to one head'); Portsmouth Cathedral ('Two bosses in the north aisle of the quire in the Chichester-Boxgrove style.' ??); Portsmouth, SS John and Nicholas (Garrison Chapel) ('The first and third bosses are early conventional foliage in the Chichester-Boxgrove style.' ??); Sampford Courtenay (cites two examples, in the chancel and the nave); Selby Abbey (says many bosses are medieval, but says nothing about the Triple face (plate 200)); Spreyton (cites two examples, in the chancel and the nave); Tavistock; Tawton (South); Widecombe-in-the-Moor. The nine three rabbits examples were known, but Chichester and Boxgrove are new and there are a number of possibles that seem worth investigating, but Plates 1 and 30, now added above, are the only previously unnoted pictures of marginal interest.

Richard Hamann-MacLean. Künstlerlaunen im Mittelalter. IN: Friedrich Möbius & Ernst Schubert, eds.; Skulptur des Mittelalters; Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, Weimar, 1987, pp. 385-452. The material of interest is on pp. 400-403. He discusses and illustrates: the Paderborn example, saying it is 15C; the silver flask in the Hermitage; the four rabbit pattern at Lyon. He notes that the last cannot be considered a symbol of the Trinity! He mentions a cave painting in Chinese Turkestan, 10C?, which is probably the Dunhuang example. He gives a number of references to earlier articles -- ??NYS.

Tom Greeves. The Tinners' Rabbits -- chasing hares?. Dartmoor Magazine 25 (Winter 1991) 4-6. This was certainly the most informative discussion of the topic until his later articles. Greeves is an archaeologist and an authority on the Dartmoor tin industry. He has now been joined in this research by Sue Andrew and the photographer Chris Chapman, comprising the Three Hares Project. Greeves says that it is claimed to be the emblem of the medieval tinners, and various connections between tinners and rabbits have been adduced, e.g. it is claimed that the pattern was the medieval alchemical symbol for tin. It is also called the Hunt of Venus and/or an emblem of the Trinity. However, the earliest reference to the pattern on Dartmoor is an 1856 description of Widecombe Church which only says that the roof was connected with the tinners and that the pattern had an alchemical connection. Later guides to Dartmoor are still pretty vague, e.g. a 1956 writer connects the symbol with copper, not tin. It is not until 1965 that the symbol is specifically called The Tinners' Rabbits. See his 2000 article for more early references.

There is no particular Dartmoor mythology connected with rabbits, but there is much mythology of hares. See the note at the beginning of this section about the introduction of rabbits to Britain. Three unconnected rabbits do occur in some English crests. Greeves reproduces and discusses the c1600 Valentine picture -- see above.

Since no list of occurrences of the pattern had ever been compiled, Greeves examined almost all the churches in the area and discovered roof bosses with the pattern in 12 churches -- see [Greeves (2000)] for a longer list). These are all on the east side of Dartmoor or to the north, except Tavistock is on the west side and Broadclyst is some 20 mi further east. Bridford, Iddesleigh, Sampford Courtenay and Spreyton have no significant tin-mining connections. No examples are known from the much more important tin-mining area of Cornwall, but Greeves has since found an example at Cotehele, just over the border into Cornwall.

Greeves then discusses the examples at Long Melford and Paderborn, giving comments which are mentioned above. He then briefly describes the Dunhuang example, citing Whitfield & Farrar, and then the St. Petersburg example. He then notes some modern versions: a wooden teapot stand from Scandinavia and a Victorian(?) carving in Holy Trinity, Fareham, Hampshire.

Early Christianity took over many pagan symbols and the three hares or rabbits (like the Green Men) could have been adapted to represent the Trinity.

In a letter of 3 Jun 1997, Greeves says he has located further examples of the three rabbits in Cheriton Bishop and Paignton in Devon, Cotehele in Cornwall and in Wales, Scarborough (North Yorkshire), France, Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia and modern China, where the pattern is still woven into carpets. See [Greeves (2000); Greeves (2001)] for more details of these.

See below for the continuation articles [Greeves (2000); Greeves (2001)].

Paul Hambling. The Dartmoor Stannaries. Orchard Publications, Newton Abbott, 1995, pp. 38-39. This gives a short summary of Greeves' work. He adds that a story is that the tinners adopted the rabbit as their emblem in allusion to their common underground mode of life. Tinners are also said to have been responsible for some rabbit warrens, but there were lots of other warrens and they would have been too common to be specifically associated with the tinners. He notes that the symbol of three intertwined fishes was a common Christian symbol.

Simon Jenkins. England's Thousand Best Churches. Allen Lane, 1999; slightly revised, Penguin, 2000. This mentions the Three Rabbits pattern in several churches.

Boxgrove, pp. 686-687. "The second boss from the altar is so crafted that each of eight faces comes complete with two eyes, yet there are only eight eyes in all."

Long Melford, pp. 658-659. "... three rabbits sharing three ears, representing the Trinity."

Sampford Courtenay, pp. 136-137.

Widecombe in the Moor, pp. 142. "This rare symbol of the Trinity is formed of three animal heads sharing just three ears."

Richard Sale. Dartmoor The Official National Park Guide. Photos by Chris Chapman. Pevensey Guides (David & Charles), 2000. Pp. 63-64 says the symbol of 'three rabbits each with only one ear' was adopted by the tinners and may be an allusion to the Holy Trinity. He also says the rabbits became a pest and myxomatosis was introduced in 1954 and rabbit warrening was abolished in 1956. P. 63 has a photo of the boss at Throwleigh.

Tom Greeves. Chasing three hares. Dartmoor Magazine No. 61 (Winter 2000) 8-10. P. 11 contains several advertisements for hotels and tours featuring the three rabbits motif. This reports on information discovered since his previous article -- see above. Many bits of information are incorporated above, citing this as Greeves (2000).

The earliest known connection of the pattern with the tinners is given in the Torquay Directory (25 Nov 1925), but the first popular usage seems to be Sylvia Sayers' The Outline of Dartmoor's Story (1925), p. 24.

He now has found 17 Devon churches with 28 examples of the pattern: Ashreigney, Bridford, Broadclyst (9 examples from 1833 said to be careful copies of medieval bosses -- Greeves (1991) erroneously has 8), Chagford (2 examples), Cheriton Bishop, Iddesleigh, Ilsington, Kelly (2 examples, one a modern copy), Newton St. Cyres, North Bovey, Paignton, Sampford Courtenay (2 examples), South Tawton, Spreyton (2 examples), Tavistock, Throwleigh, Widecombe(-in-the-Moor). Excepting the recent copies, there are 19 medieval (i.e. pre-1500) examples, all wooden roof bosses. These stretch well beyond the Dartmoor area into mid and east Devon. Many of these sites have no significant tin-mining connections. No examples are known from the much more important tin-mining area of Cornwall, except an example at Cotehele, Cornwall, just over the Cornish border. There are also examples, probably 15C, on the roof of the Lady Chapel in St. David's Cathedral, St. David's, Pembrokeshire, and on an arch of St. Aidan's church, near Llawhaden, Dyfed.

Greeves writes that his group are organising an exhibition on the pattern at the High Moorland Visitor Centre, Princetown, Devon, for several weeks from 22 Nov 2001.

Tom Greeves. Three hares -- a Medieval Mongol Mystery. Devon Today (Apr 2001) 58-63. Many bits of information are incorporated above, citing this as Greeves (2001). Notes that Easter is believed to derive from the festival of the pagan goddess Eastre, whose familiar spirit was the hare. Reports a possibly 15C example at Corfe Mullen, Dorset. Says the pattern was used in 18C Slovakian pottery. Gives photos of examples at Paignton and South Tawton and of a modern carpet from Urumqi.

MODERN VERSIONS OF THE THREE RABBITS PUZZLE
Child. Girl's Own Book. Puzzle 10. 1833: 163; 1839: 143; 1842: 264; 1876: 221. "Can you draw three rabbits, so that they will have but three ears between them; yet each will appear to have the two that belongs to it?" (1839, 1842 and 1876 have belong instead of belongs.)

Magician's Own Book. 1857. Prob. 7: The three rabbits, pp. 269 & 293. "Draw three rabbits, so that each shall appear to have two ears, while, in fact, they have only three ears between them." The drawing is similar to, but reasonably different than that in Girl's Own Book.

Book of 500 Puzzles. 1859. Prob. 7: The three rabbits, pp. 83 & 107. Identical to Magician's Own Book.

Illustrated Boy's Own Treasury. 1860. Practical Puzzles, No. 3, pp. 395 & 436. Identical to Magician's Own Book, prob. 7.

Boy's Own Conjuring Book. 1860. Prob. 6: The three rabbits, pp. 230 & 255. Identical to Magician's Own Book.

The Drei Hasen hotel, Michelstadt, Hessen, about 40km NE of Heidelberg, uses 19C and later versions of the pattern. [Greeves (2000); Greeves (2001) has a photo of a 19C stained glass window.]

Hanky Panky. 1872. P. 87: The one-eared hares. Very similar to Magician's Own Book.

Wehman. New Book of 200 Puzzles. 1908. The three rabbits, p. 21. c= Magician's Own Book.

Collins. Book of Puzzles. 1927. The Manx rabbit puzzle, p. 153. Says it was invented by a Manxman. Shows three rabbits, each with two ears, and one has to assemble them to have just three ears.

The Warren House Inn is at one of the highest passes over Dartmoor, Devon, on the B3212 about halfway between Princetown and Moretonhampstead. The pub sign shows the Three Rabbits and they sell a polo shirt with the pattern. [Thanks to Tom Greeves for directing me to this.]

Marjorie Newman. The Christmas Puzzle Book. Hippo (Scholastic Publications, London, 1990. Kangaroos' ears, pp. 69 & 126. Like Magician's Own Book, prob. 7, but with kangaroos.

The Castle Inn, Lydford, Devon, has a fine stained glass window of the Three Rabbits by James Paterson (1915-1986). ??NYS -- described and illustrated in colour in Greeves (2000).

Jan Misspent (??sp). Design Sources for Symbolism. Batsford, 1993, p. 18. Shows the three rabbits, going anticlockwise, among other examples of three-fold rotational symmetry. Sent by Diana Hall.

Tom Greeves (see above) uses a three rabbits logo as his letterhead.

Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk, uses a version of their stained glass as a letterhead.

Trinity Construction Services, London and Essex, uses a three rabbits logo as their letterhead. A former director saw the pattern in Devon and liked it.

Laurie Brokenshire reports that the chaplain at HMS Raleigh, the naval training station near Plymouth, has a vestment with the three rabbits emblem. He saw it many years ago in the area and thought it was an excellent symbol of the Trinity and had the vestment made, probably for use on Trinity Sunday.

Martin and Philip Webb run a company called Fine Stone Miniatures (www.finestoneminiatures.com) which makes miniatures of medieval beasties from cathedrals, etc. They have recently introduced two versions of the three rabbits.

DEAD DOGS
G. Yazdani. Ajanta Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography Part I. 1930; reprinted by Swati Publications, Delhi, 1983. Photocopies sent by Peter Rasmussen. P. 3 has the following. "A good example of the artistic fancy of the sculptors of Ajanta is the delineation of four deer on the capital of a column in this cave (Plate XLb). They have been so carved that the one head serves for the body of any of the four. The poses of the bodies are most graceful and absolutely realistic, showing close study of nature combined with high artistic skill." He dates the cave to the end of the 5C. Footnote 1 says the motif of the four deer also occurs in a cave at Ghatotkach, which have an inscription dating them to the end of the 5C. Plate IV is a general view of Cave I, but I cannot recognise the image in it. Plate XLb is "Four deer with a common head" but very unclear.

Narayan Sanyal. Immortal Ajanta. Hrishikes Barik, Calcutta, 1984. Photocopies sent by Peter Rasmussen. P. 18, fig. 4.1, is a Plan of Cave I with Exhibits. P. 19 has a List of Exhibits in Cave I -- entry 17 is "Four deer with one head" and notes that it is shown in Yazdani. On the plan, 17 points to the two middle columns on the right side. P. 38 describes this: "On another [pillar-capital] there are four deer with a common head. The local guide would often invite the attention of the tourist to this and similar freaks. But the magnanimity of Ajanta lies not in such frivolities ...."

Benoy K. Behl, text and photographs. The Ajanta Caves Artistic Wonder of Ancient Buddhist India. Abrams, NY, 1998, 255pp. [= Benoy K. Behl, text and photographs. The Ajanta Caves: Ancient Paintings of Buddhist India. Thames and Hudson, London, 1998, 256pp.] P. 18 has a colour photo of a relief of four deer sharing a single head. Peter Rasmussen sent a B&W copy, which is not good, and then an enlarged colour picture which does show the effect, but it is still not very good. Behl says " Inside the main hall on the right-hand side one of the capitals is subtly carved to create the illusion of four recumbent and standing deer sharing a single head." This is apparently the only example at Ajanta as other authors refer to it as 'artistic fancy', 'freaks', 'frivolities'. The Ajanta Caves date from -2C to 6C.

Carl Schuster & Edmund Carpenter. Patterns That Connect Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art. Abrams, NY, 1996. P. 34, fig. 68, shows a painted pottery pattern from Panama with two heads and four legs, but rather more like Siamese twins than our 'two heads, four boys' pattern.

The Peterborough Psalter, Brussels. c1310. At the bottom of f. 48v, Psalm 68, is a somewhat crude example of 'two heads, four horses', where the two vertical horses have their front and back hooves touching so they are very curved while the horizontal horses have bellies on the ground. B&W in: Lucy Freeman Sandler; The Peterborough Psalter in Brussels and Other Fenland Manuscripts; Harvey Miller, London, 1974, plate 45, p. 28 (see p. 9 for the date of the MS). Also in Baltrušaitis. below.

Anna Roes. "Tierwirbel" in JPEK: Jahrbuch für prähistorische und ethnographische Kunst: Jahrgang 1936/37. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1937, 182 pp. ??NYS -- described by Peter Rasmussen [email of 8 Jan 2002]. Pp. 85 105 gives a history of the animal wheel motif, with many illustrations, but none with three hares.

Jurgis Baltrušaitis. Le Moyen Age Fantastique,.... Op. cit. under China, above. Pp. 132 139 of the 1981 edition have many examples of three and four rabbits, four boys, etc.

He discusses the animal wheel motif where several animals share the same head. This sort of image is rather more common than either the Three Rabbits or the Dead Dogs type of image and I have not tried to chronicle it. But I will include a few early examples. Baltrušaitis shows (Fig. 98) several examples of three fish with one head: from Egypt (XVIII-XX dynasty, i.e. c 1500); by Villard de Honnecourt, c1235; a pavement at Hérivaux, 13C; an Arabised plate from Paterna, 13C-14C. He cites examples in Italian and French ceramics.

He then goes on to 'two heads, four animals' patterns, showing (Fig. 99) a version of 'two heads, four horses' by the Safavid artist Riza Abbasi, signed and dated 20 Oct 1616, though the authenticity of the signature and date have been disputed. He notes that another version is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (cf below) and there are definite differences in the two versions.

He then shows (Fig. 99) the example of 'two heads, four horses' in the Peterborough Psalter. His note 160 cites J. van den Gheyn, op. cit., pl. xxi. Considerable searching finds the citation as part of note 68: J. van den Gheyn; Le Psautier de Peterborough; Haarlem, nd, ??NYS. There are a number of Peterborough Psalters, including one in the Society of Antiquaries in London, one now MS. 12 in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the famous example in Brussels (which seems to be the one studied by van den Gheyn).

Baltrušaitis then shows (Fig. 100) an example of 'two heads, four men' from the Library Portal of the Cathedral of Rouen, 1290-1300. This is a relief, nicely enclosed in a quatrefoil frame. In his text, the author says the pattern also occurs on a misericord in the Cathedral and on the Palace of Justice in Rouen. These are now the earliest known examples of this idea. Baltrušaitis cites an expert on Iranian art who says the tradition is very old in Iran and could well have inspired these examples. Baltrušaitis says the pattern also occurs: in the Church at Rosny, Aube (15C); on a cathedral stall at Vendôme; at New College, Oxford.

He then shows the Two Apes on Horseback (Fig. 101), apparently the form 1985n of Schreiber. He says several engravings of the 15C show these musical apes with the movable centre and his note cites similar examples with 'amours' and men by Cornelius Reen (1560) and Adrien Herbert (1576) and very frequently in the 17C. He then has a photo (Fig. 102) of a oriental scrollweight, and says it undoubtedly comes from the same Islamic source as the other compositions with interchangeable elements. He then shows the Ninth Key of Basil Valentine, cf under Medieval Europe, above, but I don't feel it is a picture of the present type. He then reproduces (Fig. 104) Reen's picture, Symbol d'un Amour Inconstant, from the BN, dated as c1561, with two cherubs. And then he gives (Fig. 105) a 'two heads, four men' picture with a drinking man and a harlequin horn-player. This is another 1576 Dutch engraving in the BN, in a circular frame with French and Dutch text.

Zwei Affen als Kunstreiter (Verwandlungsbild). This has two apes on a horse with a small bit of paper on a pivot which shifts the mid-body connections so either head is connected to either legs. Two versions described in W. L. Schreiber; Handbuch der Holz- und Metallschnitte des XV.Jahrhunderts. Band IV: Holzschnitte, Nr. 1783-2047. Verlag Karl W. Hiersemann, Leipzig, 1927. P. 120. Schreiber pasted up examples of all the woodcuts and metalcuts described in his Handbuch in four mammoth volumes. This unique set was presented to the Warburg Institute, where they are RR 240 1-4. The following plates are in plate vol. 3. Schreiber describes coloured examples of each version, but he only has uncoloured examples in his plate volume.

1985m. This was supposedly found in Ulm when a small church was demolished. Schreiber says the painting points to a Swiss origin and guesses a date of 1460-1480. His example shows the rotating piece in one of its positions. He describes a coloured example in the Germanisches Museum, Nürnberg.

[This picture is used in: Jasia Reichardt, ed.; Play Orbit [catalogue of an exhibition at the ICA, London, and elsewhere in 1969 1970]; Studio International, 1969, p. 45. It is described as "Paper toy from an Ulm woodcut, 1470." No further details are given in Reichardt and she tells me that it was found by a research assistant, probably at the V&A. However, it seems likely it was found at the Warburg, though it is possible that the V&A also has an example of the same print.]

[Ray Bathke [email of 20 Aug 1998] says the Ulm woodcut, 1470, appears in: Karl Gröber; Children's Toys of Bygone Ages; Batsford, 1928, 1932. ??NYS.]

1985n. Basically the same picture, but elaborated and with much more decorative detail, clearly added to an earlier version (an extra column lacks a base), again probably from Switzerland, but Schreiber makes no estimate of a date. His copy lacks the rotating piece and shows no indication of its existence. He describes a coloured version at Zürich Zentralbibliothek. Baltrušaitis, above, gives a version as Fig. 100.

Wolfgang Brückner. Populäre Druckgraphik Europas Deutschland Vom 15. bis zum 20.Jahrhundert. (As: Stampe Popolari Tedesche; Verlag Electra, Milan, 1969); Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey, München, 1969. Pp. 24-25 (Abb. 17 is on p. 25), 203. Coloured example of 1985n from Zürich Zentralbibliothek, described as Swiss, 1460/80. Cites Schreiber. He says there is a replica at Nürnberg, but this must be confusing it with 1985m. This example is slightly different than Schreiber's picture in that the circle where the rotating piece would rotate does show, but the print is pasted to another sheet and one back line of an ape has been drawn in on the backing sheet. I have a slide.

Thomas Eser. Schiefe Bilder Die Zimmernsche Anamorphose und andere Augenspiele aus den Sammlungen des Germanischen Nationalmuseums [catalogue of an exhibition in 1998]. Germanisches Museum, Nürnberg, 1998, pp. 86-87. The picture is a B&W version of a coloured example of 1985m, from the Museum Graphische Sammlung, H5690, Kapsel 8. This is probably the same example described by Schreiber, but is described as a coloured woodcut, Swiss or Schwabian, 1460/70 and probably the oldest surviving example of a picture which the viewer can change. He cites Schreiber and Brückner.

Barbara Maria Stafford & Frances Terpak. Catalog for the exhibition Devices of Wonder, at the Getty Museum, early 2002. ??NYS - information sent by William Poundstone. This shows (in colour) and discusses an oil painting of Hermes and Aphrodite, like the above apes image, with a rotating piece in the middle which covers one of the pairs of waists. It dates from early 17C Bohemia, probably the school of Prague some time after Rudolf II's death in 1612.

James C. Y. Watt & Anne E. Wardwell. When Silk Was Gold Central Asian and Chinese Textiles. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Cooperation with The Cleveland Museum of Art, dist. by Abrams. Section 45: Cloth of gold with rabbit wheels, p. 158. After discussing the four rabbits textile (see above under Other Asia), this goes on to discuss the 'two heads, four boys' motif, with Figure 73 showing a Ming example in the Shanghai Museum dated to 16 17 C. These were often used as toggles. This says that the pattern is called 'two boys make four images' and is a rebus for part of a famous line from the Yi-ching: "The primal 'one' [taiji] begets the two opposites [yi], the two opposites beget the four elements [xiang], and the four elements beget the eight trigrams [gua]." The word yi is a homonym for the word for 'boy' in some pronunciations and xiang means both 'element' and 'image'.

Rza (or Riza) Abbasi (1587 1628). Drawing: Four Horses. Drawing given in: Kh. S. Mamedov; Crystallographic Patterns. Comp. & Maths. with Appls. 12B:1/2 (1986) [= I. Hargittai, ed., Symmetry -- Unifying Human Understanding, as noted in 6.G.] 511 529, esp. 525 526. Two heads and four bodies. This seems to be an outline made from the original, probably by Mamedov? See below for a possible original version. Cf Baltrušaitis, above.

Early 17C Persian drawing: Four Horses: Concentric Design. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced in: Gyorgy Kepes; The New Landscape in Art and Science; Paul Theobold, Chicago, 1956, fig. 44 on p. 53 with caption on p. 52; and in: S&B, p. 34. This picture and the drawing above differ in the position of the feet and other small details, so it is not clear if the above has been copied from this picture. Seckel, 1997 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), reproduces it as 6 and says it is 18C. Baltrušaitis (Fig. 99), above, has a similar, but different version.

Itsuo Sakane. A Museum of Fun (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, 1977. Chap. 54-55, pp. 201-207. Seven examples, but I haven't had the text translated.

Itsuo Sakane et al. The Expanding Visual World -- A Museum of Fun. Catalogue of a travelling exhibition with some texts in English. Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, 1979. Section IV: Visual Games, no. 12-15, pp. 96-99, with short texts on p. 170. Seven examples, mostly the same as in the previous book, including the following. I give the page numbers of the previous book in ( ) when the picture is in both books.

IV-12, p. 96 (p. 205), both B&W. Sadakage Gokotei. Five Children, Ten Children. Edo era (= 1603-1867). Seckel, 1997 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), reproduces it in colour as 5 with the same data and Seckel, 2000 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), reproduces it in colour as fig. 44, p. 55 (= 2002a, fig, 44, p. 55), with no data. However, the same picture is reproduced in colour in Julian Rothenstein & Mel Gooding; The Paradox Box; Redstone Press, London, 1993; with a caption by James Dalgety, saying that it is a painting by Yamamoto Hisabei, c1835, based on an earlier Chinese image, and giving the title as Ten Children with Five Heads.

Unnumbered, p. 97 (pp. 202-203, figs. 2, 3, 4), both B&W, but the titles have no English versions. Though no credit is given, the top item is is the early 17C Persian drawing in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The second item seems to be from Renaissance Europe and can be called 'three heads, seven children'. There are three heads and upper bodies alternating with three legs and lower bodies in a flattened hexagonal pattern so the the top head can also connect to the bottom legs giving a third arrangement of the pieces, though the other two children occur in the previous arrangements, so one gets a total of seven children rather than nine. I have only recently discovered this is a European item and Bill Kalush has an example of a lead medallion with the same pattern which is dated to c1610 Prague -- I have a photo. Edward Hordern's collection has a wooden box with this pattern on the cover, dated as 16C, but it looks later to me, though I have only seen photos.

The third item is a version of the 'five heads, ten chldren' picture described above. However, the references to this chapter mention Lietzmann and I have found it there, where it is stated to be a Japanese matchbox -- see below.

IV-14, p. 99 (colour) (p. 207, B&W). Kuniyoshi Ichiyusai [= Utagawa Kuniyoshi]. Stop Yawning. Late Edo era [mid 19C].

IV-15, p. 98 (colour). Anon. Four Heads, Twelve Horses. Probably Persian. This item belongs to Martin Gardner, having been left to him by M. C. Escher. It seems to be a leather cushion cover, probably Persian. Seckel, 1997 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), reproduces it as the 6 and says it is 18C. Seckel, 2000 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), reproduces it as fig. 88, pp. 99 & 122 (= 2002b, fig. 86, pp. 97 & 120) and says sometime in the 17C.

Metal scrollweights of the 'two heads, four children' pattern have been made in China since at least the 17C. I have three modern examples which Peter Hajek obtained for me in Hong Kong. Edward Hordern's collection has a version from c1680 and a porcelain version, about six or eight inches across, among other examples -- I have the date somewhere. James Dalgety also has an example of the porcelain version.

"Three Boys -- Nine Torsos". Anonymous painting on silk from 1700-1710 in City Palace Museum, Jaipur, India. Edward Hordern's collection has a modern replica. This is similar to the Three Heads, Seven Children version mentioned above. I have photos from Hordern's replica and a copy of his information sheet on it and another painting. Reproduced from Hordern's example in: Rothenstein & Gooding, below, p. 16.

Mohammad Bagheri has sent me some souvenir material from the Museum, now named the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur. This shows a different version of the pattern, with the same basic geometry but very different figures and colours.

Family Friend 1 (1849) 148 & 178. Practical puzzles -- No. 3 -- Dead or alive? "These dogs are dead you well may say:-- Add four lines more, they'll run away!" Answer has "See now the four lines. "Tally-ho!" We've touch'd the dogs, and away they go!"

Julian Rothenstein & Mel Gooding. The Playful Eye. Redstone Press, London, 1999. They include a number of Japanese prints. There are brief notes on p. 100.

P. 16. "Three Boys -- Nine Torsos". Photo from Hordern's facsimile, see above.

P. 20. Three heads, six bodies. Woodblock print, 1860s.

P. 20. Five heads, ten bodies, similar to the version given by Sakane, above, but with different costumes. Woodblock print, 1860s.

P. 21. Two or three bodies, one head. Woodblock print, c1855. This has six groups of bodies where one head or hat can be associated with two or three of the bodies. There is a set of four upper bodies which can be associated with one pair of legs.

P. 22. Five heads, ten bodies, almost identical to the version given by Sakane, above, but in colour with MADE IN JAPAN on the bottom edge. The notes say it is a Japanese matchbox label, c1900.

P. 22. Six heads, twelve bodies. Two rings of three heads, six bodies, with elephants. Japanese matchbox label, c1900.

P. 24. Five heads, ten bodies, similar to the version given by Sakane, above, but with women. Woodblock print, c1850.

Parlour Pastime, 1857. = Indoor & Outdoor, c1859, Part 1. = Parlour Pastimes, 1868. Mechanical puzzles, no. 5, p. 177 (1868: 188): Alive or Dead. "These dogs are dead, perhaps you'll say; Add four lines and then they'll run away."

Magician's Own Book. 1857. Prob. 27: The dog puzzle, pp. 275 & 298. "The dogs are, by placing two lines upon them, to be suddenly aroused to life and made to run. Query, How and where should these lines be placed, and what should be the forms of them?" S&B, p. 34.

Book of 500 Puzzles. 1859. Prob. 27: The dog puzzle, pp. 89 & 112. Identical to Magician's Own Book.

Illustrated Boy's Own Treasury. 1860. Practical Puzzles, No. 33: Dead or Alive, pp. 401 & 441 "These dogs are dead you well may say:-- Add four lines more, they'll run away!"

Boy's Own Conjuring Book. 1860. Prob. 26: The dog puzzle, pp. 237 & 261. Identical to Magician's Own Book.

Leske. Illustriertes Spielbuch für Mädchen. 1864? Prob. 583-7, p. 285. Dead dogs.

Magician's Own Book (UK version). 1871. The solution drawing is given at the bottom of p. 231, apparently to fill out the page as there is no relevant text anywhere. The drawing is better than in the 1857 US book of the same name.

Elliott. Within Doors. Op. cit. in 6.V. 1872. Chap. 1, no. 6: The dog puzzle, pp. 28 & 31. "By connecting the dogs with four lines only they will suddenly start into life, and commence running. Where should the lines be placed?" However, he omits to give a picture!

Hoffmann. 1893. Chap. 10, no. 32: The two dogs, pp. 348 & 387 = Hoffmann-Hordern, pp. 244-245. No poetry, but the solution notes that you have to view the dogs sideways.

Mr. X [cf 4.A.1]. His Pages. The Royal Magazine 9:5 (Mar 1903) 490-491. Trick donkeys. "Here are two apparently very dead donkeys. To bring them to life it is only necessary to fill in the dotted lines and then turn the page half way round."

Benson. 1904. The dead dogs puzzle, pp. 256 257. Prose version.

Pearson. 1907. Part III, no. 83: Rousing dead dogs -- A good old puzzle, p. 83 . "These dogs are dead, we all should say; Give them four strokes, they run away."

Wehman. New Book of 200 Puzzles. 1908. The dog puzzle, p. 22. c= Magicians Own Book.

W. Lietzmann. Lustiges und Merkwürdiges von Zahlen und Formen. 1922. I can't find it in the 2nd ed. of 1923. 4th ed, F. Hirt, Breslau, 1930, p. 208, unnumbered figure, shows the 'five heads, ten children' pattern mentioned as the third item on p. 97 of the Sakane book above, labelled: Japanese Matchbox How many people, how many heads, how many legs, how many arms are in this picture?

The material is also in the 6th ed., 1943, p. 200, fig. 46; 7th & 10th eds., 1950 & 1969, p. 196, fig. 37.

Collins. Book of Puzzles. 1927. The dead dogs puzzle, p. 152.

A two bodied woman. In Seckel, 2002a, op. cit. in 6.AJ, fig. 2, pp. 11 & 44 (= 2002b, fig. 144, pp. 161 & 194). A real photo of Lady Bird Johnson greeting a woman friend which shows just one head on two embracing bodies.

TRICK MULES
Loyd. P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules. 1871. Loyd registered this in 1871 and sold it to Barnum shortly thereafter. Barnum used it in his Advance Courier. See S&B, p. 34, for an illustration of Barnum's version and two recent versions. See SLAHP: Out for a gallop, pp. 65 & 110. See Gardner, SA (Aug 1957) c= 1st Book, chap. 9. In a 1907 interview, it was stated that thousands of millions of copies of the puzzle had been printed, with Loyd taking orders for a million at a time!

Gaston Tissandier. Jeux et Jouets du jeune age Choix de récréations amusantes & instructives. Ill. by Albert Tissandier. G. Masson, Paris, nd [c1890]. Le mulet rigolo, pp. 36-37, with elegant coloured plate. No reference to its history.

Mel Stover. 1980s?? Trick zebras puzzle. This has two identical cards with two zebras and two riders. The instructions say to cut one card into three parts along the dotted lines and put the riders on the zebras. However, one zebra is facing the opposite way to the usual case and it takes some time to realise how to solve the problem.

Seckel, 2000 (op. cit. in 6.AJ), gives a nice colour version as fig. 105, pp. 116 & 122 (= 2002b, fig. 103, pp. 114 & 120), but only says it is due to Loyd.