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    A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy
    A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy
    A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy
    Ebook111 pages50 minutes

    A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy

    By Frank Tose

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    About this ebook

    This book contains a comprehensive guide to taxidermy, detailing the methodology and techniques used for skinning, stuffing, and mounting a large range of common subjects. Containing easy-to-follow steps and a wealth of helpful illustrations, this text is perfect for the beginner and constitutes a great addition to any collection of taxidermic literature. Chapters contained herein include: 'Tools', 'Skinning Small Mammals', 'To Clean a Mammal Skin', 'Mounting', 'Determining the Posture', 'Mounting Large Mammals', 'Skinning and Stuffing Birds', 'Where Details Count', 'Mounting Birds', 'Skinning Heads of Birds', 'Removing Fat from Skins of Birds', 'Mounting Birds with Spread Wings', 'Skinning and Mounting a Horned Head', et cetera. We are proud to republish this antique text complete with a new introduction to the subject.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateAug 26, 2016
    ISBN9781473357082
    A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy

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      Book preview

      A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy - Frank Tose

      A Compact Step by Step Guide to Taxidermy

      By

      Frank Tose

      Copyright © 2011 Read Books Ltd.

      This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      CONTENTS

      Taxidermy

      TAXIDERMY

      Taxidermy

      Taxidermy (from the Greek for arrangement of skin) is the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals (especially vertebrates) for display (e.g. as hunting trophies) or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. A person who practices taxidermy is called a taxidermist. Taxidermists may practice professionally for museums or as businesses, catering to hunters and fishermen, or as amateurs, such as hobbyists, hunters, and fishermen. To practice taxidermy, one should be very familiar with anatomy, sculpture, and painting, as well as tanning.

      The preservation of animal skins has been practiced for a long time. Embalmed animals have even been found with Egyptian mummies. Although embalming incorporates the use of lifelike poses, it is not technically considered taxidermy though. The earliest methods of preservation of birds for natural history cabinets were published in 1748 by the French Academician Réaumur, and four years later, techniques for mounting were described by M. B. Stollas. By the eighteenth century, almost every town had a tannery business. In the nineteenth century, hunters began bringing their trophies to upholstery shops, where the upholsterers would actually sew up the animal skins and stuff them with rags and cotton. The term ‘stuffing’ or a ‘stuffed animal’ evolved from this crude form of taxidermy. Professional taxidermists prefer the term ‘mounting’ to ‘stuffing’ however. More sophisticated cotton-wrapped wire bodies supporting sewn-on cured skins soon followed.

      In France, Louis Dufresne, taxidermist at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle from 1793, popularized arsenical soap (utilising the chemical Arsenic) in an article titled, Nouveau Dictionnaire D'Histoire Naturelle (1803–1804). This technique enabled the museum to build the greatest collection of birds in the world. Dufresne's methods spread to England in the early nineteenth century, where updated and non-toxic methods of preservation were developed by some of the leading naturalists of the day, including Rowland Ward and Montague Brown. Ward established one of the earliest taxidermy firms, Rowland Ward Ltd. of Piccadilly. Nevertheless, the art of taxidermy remained relatively undeveloped, and the specimens that were created remained stiff and unconvincing.

      The golden age of taxidermy was during the Victorian era, when mounted animals became a popular part of interior design and decor. For the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, John Hancock, widely considered the father of modern taxidermy, mounted a series of stuffed birds as an exhibit. They generated much interest among the public and scientists alike, who considered them superior to earlier models and were regarded as the first lifelike and artistic specimens on display. A judge remarked that Hancock's exhibit ‘will go far towards raising the art of taxidermy to a level with other arts, which have hitherto held higher pretensions.’

      In the early twentieth century, taxidermy was taken forward under the leadership of artists such as Carl Akeley, James L. Clark, Coleman Jonas, Fredrick and William Kaempfer, and Leon Pray. These and other taxidermists developed anatomically accurate figures which incorporated every detail in artistically interesting poses, with mounts in realistic settings and poses. This was quite a change from the caricatures popularly offered as hunting trophies. The methods of taxidermy have substantially improved over the last century, heightening quality and lowering toxicity. The animal is first skinned in a process similar to removing the skin from a chicken prior to cooking. This can be accomplished without opening the body cavity, so the taxidermist usually does not see internal organs or blood. Depending on the type of skin, preserving chemicals are applied or the skin is tanned. It is then either mounted on a mannequin made from wood, wool and wire, or a polyurethane form. Clay is used to install glass eyes, which are either bought or cast by the taxidermist themselves.

      As an interesting side note, with the success of taxidermy has come the sub-genre of ‘rogue taxidermy’; the creation of stuffed animals which do not have real, live counterparts. They can represent impossible hybrids such as the jackalope and the skvader, extinct species, mythical creatures such as dragons, griffins, unicorns or mermaids, or may be entirely of the maker's imagination. When the platypus was first discovered by Europeans in 1798, and a pelt and sketch were sent to the UK, some thought the animal to be a hoax. It was supposed that a taxidermist had sewn a duck's beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal. George Shaw, who produced the first description of the animal in the Naturalist's Shunga Miscellany in 1799, even took a pair of scissors to the dried skin to check for stitches. Today, although a niche craft, the art of taxidermy - rogue or otherwise, is still thriving.

      TAXIDERMY

      ALTHOUGH it is true that the curing of skins for clothing has been practiced from the most remote times, the art of Taxidermy is of comparatively recent origin. The mounting of birds and other animals in natural and lifelike positions has been extensively practiced only during the last century.

      It has been left until even more recent times to elevate the art from its crude beginnings. By combining the efforts of the taxidermist, artist and modeller, some really great works have been executed in the best museums of America and Europe. In our own country we have the commencement of several museums, one at Victoria, B. C., being fairly complete. Wonderful as our North American wild life is, many species are in various stages of the process of extinction and it is regrettable that they should be allowed to pass before their external characteristics go on permanent record through the taxidermist’s skill.

      This book is written expressly for the amateur. Let it be understood that its purpose is not to incite the would-be collector to go forth and slay everything in sight with the sole purpose of making

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