A Lion; and A Tiger

The ancient Japanese skill of bon-kei or 'tray picture' was known, but Benjamin Zobel (1762-1831) is credited with inventing the technique of sand painting and he was certainly the first to introduce the art to England. A native of Memmingen in Bavaria (Swabia), Zobel was employed by the Prince Regent's chef Louis Weltje, and became a 'Table Decker' at Windsor Castle. The custom of 'Table Decking' had been introduced into England by George III, where the table cloth at dinner was elaborately decorated with designs of coloured sands, marble dust, powdered glass or bread crumbs. Zobel became a skilled confectioner and was entrusted with the pictures made in coloured sugars that decorated the huge tarts served at banquets. The method he employed for making sugar patterns was identical to that which he used to make his sand pictures; that is the sugar, or sand, is shaken through a cut and pleated playing-card. Having converted the ephemeral process of sugar pattern to a permanent form of picture making, and believing that there was a future in it, he continued to make his sand pictures in his spare time.