Practical taxidermy : a manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds to which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums / by Montagu Browne.

  • Browne, Montagu.
Date:
[1884?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical taxidermy : a manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds to which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums / by Montagu Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    267/390 (page 253)
    Looking back to ’51, let us see what one of these foreigners (mentioned at page 15) could teach us. Among over fifty groups of animals shown in the Great Exhibition were— A stag caught by five hounds (price .£180). A wild boar set on by three hounds. A couple of old and young foxes in front of their “ earth ” (£60). Trophy of 25 heads of animals of the chase. Nest of a horned owl. Two old birds and five young defending themselves against two polecats (£30). Goshawk attacking an eagle owl. These were followed by comic groups, six of which illustrated Goethe’s fable of “Reinecke the Fox,” and were skilfully managed as well as amusing. Some others were— A duel between two dormice, with moles as gravediggers. “A Declaration of Love.” Two weasels. “ A Nursery Maid.” One old and four young weasels. “ Shaving a Luxury.” One frog shaving another. Apropos of the above, frogs lend themselves better to comic scenes than almost any other animal, from their ridiculous like- ness, when erect on their hind legs, to mighty man. Hence advantage is often taken of this; and amongst mirth-provoking caricatures I have seen “ A Steeplechase,” frogs mounted on puppies as horses, some tumbling at the water-jump, others riding to win, some unhorsed, scrambling after their steeds, and so on; “ The Battle of the Nile,” frogs on rafts of leaves of water plants, attacking one another with small bulrushes; duel scenes; “Courtship” and “Matrimony”; “Fortiter in Re,” a young frog soundly smacked (in the most approved fashion) by the irate paternal frog; the companion picture, “ Suaviter in Modo,” a young frog soothed by maternal affection. Monkeys are the next best for comic scenes, but are more awkward to handle, and not half so funny, unless very care- fully modelled to caricature the manners and customs of the human subject. Pourtrayed as shoemakers, acrobats, as “You dirty boy!” or, as in the Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, as “The Enthusiast” (a gouty monkey fishing in a tub placed