figleaf

Wow that is awesome!

yeah, especially considering there were no steroids back then. At least I think there weren't.

he looks like a marble statue - possibly from the lack of fake tan and baby oil that todays muscle-men would be sporting

Eugene Sandow was the most amazing and the greatest bodybuilder that ever lived! (Take that, modern athletes on steroids!)

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Beautiful

Based on the almost legible sign in this picture, the fancy one on the left was Indian, and I think presented either to or by Field Marshal Lord Gough.

Also, I can only see 3 pieces of artillery...

Apparently, there were 4 guns presented to Lord Gough by the East Indian Company, and his son lent/gave 2 of them (howitzers) to the Museum. They're now at McKee Barracks, outside the officers' mess.

Leaving aside the cannons, his was taken in the Rotunda of what's now the NMI - Archaeology, on Kildare Stret. The zodiac mosaic is still there, even if the statues and artillery have been replaced by the Museum Shop.

It's from after around 1890 or later as the museum opened it's doors on 29th August of that year.

Here's -- what looks like-- the one on the right

I reckon that could be the leaf of a fiddle leaf fig - Ficus lyrata!