Rare Victorian Taxidermy Specimen of a Miniature Bull Terrier
A Curious Rare Victorian Taxidermy Specimen of a Miniature Bull Terrier ‘Rose’ Standing on a Velvet Cushion Wearing a Brass and Leather Collar Mounted under an original glass dome
Three metal labels attached reading:
‘Breed by Mr John Jones at 23 Smiths Buildings Long Lane Bermondsey London’
Another:
‘This celebrated Little Wonder ‘Rose’ the smallest Bull Terrier ever seen weight 1lb 14oz aged 2 years and 3 months died Nov 6th 1880’
Another:
‘… Heywoods, Bermondsey one eved dog out of Jones’s breeder, Lady, by Bulls Dick out of his Bull Bitch, Nell 24lb weight’
Circa 1880
Size: 48cm high, 46cm wide, 24cm deep - 19 ins high, 18 ins wide, 9½ ins deep
Three metal labels attached reading:
‘Breed by Mr John Jones at 23 Smiths Buildings Long Lane Bermondsey London’
Another:
‘This celebrated Little Wonder ‘Rose’ the smallest Bull Terrier ever seen weight 1lb 14oz aged 2 years and 3 months died Nov 6th 1880’
Another:
‘… Heywoods, Bermondsey one eved dog out of Jones’s breeder, Lady, by Bulls Dick out of his Bull Bitch, Nell 24lb weight’
Circa 1880
Size: 48cm high, 46cm wide, 24cm deep - 19 ins high, 18 ins wide, 9½ ins deep
One of the first instruction manuals for taxidermy was published by Belon in 1555, but decoys used by bird trappers probably consisted of stuffed and crude mummified specimens long before. The first major use of taxidermy was to preserve the specimens collected by explorers and brought back from across the world. Not all the live specimens captured survived the journey and although shells, corals, insects and some fish could be dried successfully, the larger mammals and birds posed a bigger problem to preserve. Thus, most of the old European Renaissance cabinets of curiosities contained those exotic specimens most easily dried rather than ‘stuffed’, such as crocodile skins, armadillos, chameleons, sawfish blades and pufferfish. All of these were more resistant to insect attack than taxidermied birds and mammals, and so some still survive in old collections such as those that can be seen at Ambras Castle in Innsbruck in Austria.
Rare Victorian Taxidermy Specimen of a Miniature Bull Terrier
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