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Keeping Dr. Johnson's cat
alive—and well-fed
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The sculptor Jon Bickley (at right) with the Lord
Mayor of London (left) and Lord Harmsworth at the 1997
installation of Hodge outside Johnson’s house. | |
He did not suffer fools gladly, but Samuel
Johnson, the formidable writer of the immortalDictionary of the
English Language of 1755, was a fool for his beloved cat Hodge.
He was even known to feed his feline friend oysters, which Johnson himself—
and not his house staff— would fetch from the local
market.
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Both cat and oyster have been
preserved for posterity by Jon Bickley, an award-winning English sculptor and a lover
of cats, dogs, elephants and just about every other four-footed creature.
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Thomas Henry, Jon's cat,
served as
the model for Hodge.
Johnson once described Hodge as
"a very fine cat
indeed." |
An Honours graduate of the Norwich (England) School of Art and Design,
Jon worked as a zookeeper before becoming a full-time sculptor 17 years
ago. Not surprising, then, that his studio (a sixteenth-century barn) is
often filled with animals in various states of bronze casting. Many
eventually find their way to art galleries and private gardens around
London, throughout Britain and in Europe.
The Hodge Bookends that
Levenger commissioned are a replica of the version of Hodge that Jon
sculpted for Johnson’s house in Gough Square, off Fleet Street in London.
Visitors find Hodge sitting patiently atop a bronze version of the
Dictionary.
"It seems Dr. Johnson and I were meant to come
together," Jon says. "He was born in Lichfield, in the Midlands, and I
was brought up just outside it. I can close my eyes and picture his birth
house." In sculpting Hodge, Jon had a model—his own cat, named
Thomas Henry—and a hunch that eighteenth-century cats, even if doted on,
did not have the easiest of lives. Like Johnson, he was determined to find an
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The Levenger Bookends are
finished in
the same bronze coloring as the
original statue
and feature one of Hodge’s much-loved
oysters. |
oyster
for his Hodge. It had to be a proper English oyster, though, and you can’t
buy them in the shops anymore, Jon says. So he made a special trip to the
beach to find his quarry.
The Lord Mayor of London was among the titled gentry on hand for
Hodge’s installation in Gough Square. Unveiled in 1997, the bronze met the
City of London’s goal of having a statue that visitors could connect with
and would be drawn to.
"I made Hodge about shoulder height for the
average adult, Jon explains, which is just about right for putting an arm
around." This is one cat that never minds a good stroking.
