October 4, 2018
Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,
Over the last month, an exciting event occurred here at the garden: the restoration of the unicorn's missing head at the lower entrance near the Old Croton Aqueduct. For years, we thought it was a headless horse, but Barbara Israel, America's leading garden antiques expert and our Board's vice-chair, thought otherwise.
Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,
Over the last month, an exciting event occurred here at the garden: the restoration of the unicorn's missing head at the lower entrance near the Old Croton Aqueduct. For years, we thought it was a headless horse, but Barbara Israel, America's leading garden antiques expert and our Board's vice-chair, thought otherwise.
Along with Bree Moon, her employee, Barbara thought that the sculpture, paired with a lion, was a unicorn. Together, they form part of the coat of arms of Great Britain: the lion symbolizes England and the unicorn, Scotland. She guessed that they were architectural ornaments for a public building in that country, possibly in the 18th century, and purchased by Samuel Untermyer for his garden.
The problem was that the only photograph we had of the ensemble showed it behind the no-longer-extant elaborate wrought-iron gate along the Aqueduct, taken in the 1930s. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but it is clear that there was no horn at that time.
Based on its cloven hoof, a characteristic of a unicorn, we concluded that it was a unicorn, and that the horn must have disappeared at some point. So we decided to commission a marble replacement from Chris Pelletieri, a distinguished sculptor in New York City. The head now sports a truncated horn, to show that it had once been a unicorn.
Our recent celebration of Mehregan, the ancient Persian festival of the harvest and thanksgiving, was better than ever. The inaugural Samuel Untermyer Award was presented by Vartan Gregorian to Christiane Amanpour. In addition to excellent Persian food in a magnificent garden setting, highlights of the event were performances by the National Pars Ballet of Vancouver, the violinist Oliver Hakim, and the santurist Amir Vahab. To see photos of this Persian event, click here. If you'd like to be added to our mailing list for other Persian events and information about our Persian Garden, click here.
Bit by bit, with the support of many friends, we are restoring Untermyer Gardens to its glory days.
Kind regards,
Stephen F. Byrns
President, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy
Bit by bit, with the support of many friends, we are restoring Untermyer Gardens to its glory days.
Kind regards,
Stephen F. Byrns
President, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy
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