Lost Era's Animals go Under the Hammer
Richard Baston
Today you would not harm a hair on their head or a feather on their wings. But a century ago big cats and small birds were shot and skinned to improve people's knowledge, furnishings and even dinner menu.
Snarling spreadeagled leopardskins, a tiger head, seal pelt and a stuffed bittern are among lots going under the hammer at a Norfolk auction room.
They come from the days when such magnificent animals were still plentiful, not protected against the poacher's gun, and adorned museums and mansions glass showcases or added an exotic flourish to a room as a dramatic floor covering.
Bidding is expected to be brisk for the trophies from an era when it was the done thing to shoot and display wildlife - which seems alien to a modern world keen to conserve its cherished creatures.
But a local expert says the current generation should not be too harsh on a practice which now seemed cruel and grisly.
Norwich Castle Museum curator of natural history Tony Irwin said: “A hundred years ago the way people advanced their knowledge of animals and birds was by shooting them.
“Nobody had problems with it, but that does not mean people were any less respectful or caring about wildlife.
“Stuffed animals were the only way it could be brought to a wider audience. They did not have television or David Attenborough.”
Leopards were a fairly common predator in India at the time when shooting parties were common.
“It would be wrong to condemn the people who were shooting these animals 100 years ago. They were only doing what was appropriate at the time,” he explained.
But he warned anyone buying such skins to ensure they were a genuine antique, as big cats were still being shot today by poachers fuelling a Far East market for medicines, mainly aphrodisiac potions, made from body parts.
The lots at Keys Aylsham saleroom also include photos of a tiger shoot, a fire screen made from a giant turtle shell, a stuffed wild boar and a range of birds from a peregrine falcon and marsh harrier to a cormorant from Wells, and a bittern, fashioned by Frederick Gunn, a “pictorial taxidermist and high class furrier” of St Giles Street in Norwich.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds spokesman Ciaran Nelson said 900 years ago, the now rare bitterns had once been a very common bird - particularly in the fens, where they were known as bogblutters, bogbumpers and fen turkeys.
Habitat loss, caused by fen drainage, saw them cut
to just 11 breeding pairs at one stage, though that had now risen to 50 and was rising through the creation of new inland freshwater reedbeds such as Lakenheath Fen.
When bittern were common they were even hunted as a source of local food for the dining tables of fen families.
And Victorian conservationists used to shoot and stuff them to study the birds rather than use the binoculars and notebooks of today's nature lovers, he added.
Modern day taxidermist Richard Brigham from Lyng Easthaugh near Dereham said the bittern was done by one of Norwich's best craftsmen, and agreed that the preserving of now protected species by gentlemen collectors should not be condemned as “times change.”
The current trade was mainly in road kill, such as owls, which people wanted preserved, along with game birds and wildfowl - which could cost about £250-300 for a specimen in a display case.
Keys auctioneer and Paul Goodley said the animal lots came from two East Anglian collectors. The stuffed bittern was rare and had a guide price of £800-£1000, with the interest most likely to be regional.
However bidding for the big cats, some of which could fetch up to £700, could come from Europe where such items were more popular than in the UK.
The items feature on the second day of a two-day antiques sale at Keys Aylsham saleroom on Tuesday and Wednesday , starting at 10.30am. Viewing from 9am to noon today, 9am to 7.30pm Monday, 8.30am to 4pm Tuesday and 8.30am to 10.30am Wednesday. More information from 01263 733195 or www.keys24.com
EDP24: 9th February 2008
