Taxidermy display
attributed to J. Hutchings
Category
Natural History / Taxidermy
Date
circa 1900 - circa 1929
Materials
Display case with taxidermy badger, taxidermy polecat, and taxidermy rabbit
Measurements
880 x 830 x 350 mm
Place of origin
Aberystwyth
Order this imageCollection
Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion
NT 461404
Caption
The design of this case is highly typical of the many hundreds produced by the firm of Hutchings of Aberystwyth between 1860 and 1942. The carpentry, colours, artificial (paper) ‘rocks’ are all distinctive style features. The badger is poised to ambush a polecat, an unlikely scenario, but a common design by this taxidermist that fits two species into a relatively compact case. Badgers were rare 100 years ago, while polecats were common. Both would have been obtained from a local gamekeeper.
Summary
A display case containing a stuffed badger and stuffed polecat, with its rabbit prey, arranged in a pictorial scene. The case is painted black and gilded around the glass panel on the front. The maker is Hutchings of Aberystwyth and this display dates from the early 20th century.
Provenance
An item from the Llanerchaeron collection, left to the National Trust in the will of John Powell Ponsonby Lewes in 1989
Makers and roles
attributed to J. Hutchings, taxidermist