Designer birds: Swan

This beautiful swan and its reflection is available as a fine art print from Fotoviva – click on the image…

I think it’s time we looked at another iconic bird, this time the swan. You may already have seen my earlier posts on the design appeal of penguins and peacocks and owls.

What makes a swan? It’s big, usually white and has a longer neck than a goose, the only other sort of wildfowl or domestic fowl that could possibly cause confusion.

The beaks of swans

According to the Collins Coloured Key to the Wildfowl of the World (in association with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust), there are usually considered to be seven white swan species, which are:
Trumpeter swan
(Cygnus cygnus buccinator)
Whooper swan
(Cygnus cygnus cygnus)
Whistling swan
(Cygnus columbianus columbianus)
Bewick’s swan
(Cygnus columbianus bewickii)
Mute swan
(Cygnus olor)
Perhaps the best way to differentiate is by the beaks – they are shown in the above order in the illustration on the left from the Collins Coloured Key to the Wildfowl of the World.

Mute swans (Cygnus olor) at Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, in January 2012

In England the swan has often made a good sign for a pub, inn or restaurant and here are some stylish modern examples…

Great Shefford Swan, Berkshire

The Swan at Stoford, Wiltshire

The Swan at Felsted, Essex

The Old Swan at Madeley, Cheshire

The Swan at Ely, Cambridgeshire, uses the classic heart pose

The Swan Inn, Sturminster Newton, Dorset

European swans, for thousands of years, were nothing but white. But there are also many old English pubs called the Black Swan, even though there was no such bird. The black swan existed in European culture (and pub names) but only as a metaphor for something that couldn’t exist or was a wonder or at least a great rarity.

Here is a traditional old Black Swan hotel in Helmsley, North Yorkshire – a pub I have actually visited…

Black Swan at Helmsley, North Yorkshire, pictured by BazzaDaRambler on Flickr…

Although there was no black swan species in Europe, one was eventually discovered in Australia and naturalist John Latham named it Chenopis in 1790 when he examined a specimen sent back to England.

Now called Cygnus atratus, it’s a native of South Western and South Eastern Australia and New Zealand, but had to be reintroduced to New Zealand after being hunted to extinction.

Western Australia was originally called the Swan River Colony and in 1854 had its first penny black swan postage stamps. This is notable because in 1855 when a press broke, nearly 400 of the stamps were printed with the swan upside-down. Fewer than 20 of the “inverted black swan” stamps remain, so they are very rare and valuable to collectors. Strangely this stamp has been in my mind since I was a child, after it was mentioned in a comic strip in a Dandy or Beano annual I read…

Black swan (Cygnus atratus) at Llanelli Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre

You can probably tell an old black swan pub sign from a new one by the image as an ordinary British swan with black feathers, while more recently they are pictured as genuine Southern Hemisphere black swans with red eyes and red beaks…

The Black Swan in Devizes shows a swan with red beak and eyes…

This colouring was also vividly used in the publicity for the recent hit movie about the dark side of ballet, Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman…

Here’s a nice piece of fan art by Ana Fagarazzi for Natalie Portman in the film Black Swan…

There is one more swan – the black-necked swan, Cygnus melanocoryphus, native to South America. Its closest relatives are the black swan and mute swan.

Black-necked swans (Cygnus melanocoryphus) at the Wildfowl & Wetlands centre, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, in January 2012

But back to some design. A swan logo can be lifelike or stylised…

Black Swan Explorations, Yorkshire

Nail Smart, Australia

The logo of Swansea City, Wales’ only Premier League football club – the Swans were promoted to the Premiership a year ago – and stayed there…

The logo for Western Australia’s 175th anniversary in 2004 – black swan with elements of brown for land, blue for water and green for environment

Elegance on the water is one of the key attributes of swans, although the illusion is ruined when you see those big, black, rubbery feet paddling away underneath!

For Swarovski crystal, the swan logo stands for elegance, style and beauty…

Logo for Milica Sekulic by Aleksandar Grkinic of http://www.egopop.net

Not surprisingly, the Black Swan Theatre Company is in Australia

Black Swan Chauffeurs are based in the Cotswolds – elegance again

Somehow I feel I can’t end without mentioning the Greek mythology of swans. I find it hard to believe such a big, brutal bird can be a romantic or sex symbol, but so it would seem.

I have previously told the story of Leda being seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan and giving birth to two pairs of twins in eggs here. Apparently the imagery was very popular in the 16th century when it was acceptable to depict a woman raped by a swan but not a man…

Here are some modern-day takes on the subject:

The Swan by Josephine Wall – who has her studio in Poole, Dorset, one of my favourite places…

A touch brutal! Leda and the swan by Colombian artist Botero Fernando…

Married to a Swan by MoonyKhoa Le – which reminds me of Arthur Rackham’s work

And finally, there’s the swan in the night sky…

The constellation of Cygnus pictured in the book Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius. The view is in reverse, following the tradition of celestial globes, as if the artist is looking from outside the celestial sphere

The constellation of Cygnus or the Northern Cross is thought to represent Orpheus, turned into a swan and placed there after his murder, to be alongside his lyre, the constellation Lyra.

The brightest star in Cygnus (Deneb), combines with the brightest in Lyra (Vega) and the brightest in Aquila (Altair) to make the summer triangle in the northern hemisphere’s night sky.

That’s enough swanning about – I’ll be off now to find another designer bird to ponder…