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Taxidermy Books

Taxidermy books include the histories of the old famous taxidermy companies such as Van Ingen and Rowland Ward and practical manuals on doing taxidermy at home.

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James Churchill

The Complete Book Of Tanning Skins And Furs

The Complete Book Of Tanning Skins And Furs by James Churchill (1983) is for anyone who is serious about learning the finer points of tanning. Gives background information on the necessary tools and equipment. Kindle Version


Christopher Frost

A History Of British Taxidermy

A History Of British Taxidermy by Christopher Frost (1987) is regarded as the finest general reference book on British taxidermy to date. It details well-known names such as Rowland Ward, Peter Spicer, H Murray & Son and many others.


Victorian Taxidermy

Victorian Taxidermy by Christopher Frost (1981) was the forerunner to his book 'A History Of British Taxidermy'. A rare and collectible book.



The Ogilvie Bird Collection

The Ogilvie Bird Collection by Christopher Frost (1989) is an illustrated guide to the F M Ogilvie collection of cased British birds prepared by T E Gunn of Norwich and presented to Ipswich Museum in 1918.



Notes On The Birds Of Cley

Notes On The Birds Of Cley by Christopher Frost (1992) is a reprint of H N Pashley's original published posthumously in 1925. As a taxidermist and naturalist, Pashley recorded many of the rarities that passed through his hands from the 1880s to the 1920s. This book gives a fine insight to a Victorian naturalists life in Norfolk and into the heyday of natural history collecting.


Jonas Brothers

Game Trails: Memoirs Of A Thousand Sportsmen

Game Trails: Memoirs Of A Thousand Sportsmen by Jonas Brothers (1939) is their 1939 annual magazine which explains their mission, items for sale, taxidermy services, samples of an care of trophies, use of trophies, museum examples, recipes and hunting tips. Jonas Brothers Taxidermy was a family business founded in 1909.


Pat A Morris

Rowland Ward: Taxidermist To The World

Rowland Ward: Taxidermist To The World by Pat Morris (2003) is an important work about this world famous family of taxidermists which is the result of many years of painstaking research.



Van Ingen And Van Ingen: Artists In Taxidermy

Van Ingen And Van Ingen: Artists In Taxidermy by Pat A Morris (2006). Van Ingen was one of the most famous names in taxidermy, synonymous with very high quality products. Their work, tigers and panthers especially, was outstanding and remains a familiar and distinctive sight in auction sales and in museums even today. Their customers included much of the Indian nobility as well as the highest ranks of British society in colonial times. This book attempts to provide a context for their work and an explanation of how it was carried out. It also serves as a record of one of the pinnacles in the history of taxidermy. Their factory employed 150 people at one time, probably the largest taxidermy operation in the world, processing 400 tigers and 600 leopards each year (that's an average of 8 tigers every week!). Their order books confirm these incredible numbers and provide an almost complete record back to the 1890s.


The King's Choice: G W Quatremain

The King's Choice: G W Quatremain by Pat Morris and Robert Chinnery (2006) provides a fantastic insight into the high quality taxidermy produced by G W Quatremain. Work by Quatremain is now possibly the most sought after in UK taxidermy fraternity.


Walter Potter And His Museum Of Curious Taxidermy

Walter Potter And His Museum Of Curious Taxidermy by Pat Morris (2008) is the history of the extraordinary collection of Walter Potter's animal displays.



Walter Potter's Curious World Of Taxidermy

Walter Potter's Curious World Of Taxidermy by Pat Morris (2013). Walter Potter (1835-1918), a country taxidermist of no great expertise, became famous as an icon of Victorian whimsy. His museum in Bramber, Sussex, was crammed full of multi-legged kittens, two-headed lambs and a bewildering assortment of curios. Closed in the 1970s, the subsequent dispersal of Potter's works has meant the loss of a unique Victorian legacy. Here, perhaps for the last time, the collection is preserved and celebrated with new photographs of Potter's best-loved works.


John W Moyer

Trophy Heads

Trophy Heads by John W Moyer (1962). John Moyer was a taxidermist at the Chicago Natural History Museum. This book offers valuable information concerning the game sought as trophies over five continents. It provides the sportsman with life histories of the various animals, approximate sizes and weights, names of related forms, range or habitat and measurements of near-record trophies. There are small maps indicating the range or habitat of each animal discussed and 74 photographs of outstanding trophies.


Edwin Ward Jr

Edwin Ward Jr (1834 - 1905) was the son of Edwin Henry Ward (1812 - 1878) the founder of the taxidermy dynasty and brother of Rowland Ward. Both sons were trained in the taxidermy business and were successful - all three Wards operated taxidermy shops of their own in England.

Edwin Jr left the taxidermy business and eventually moved to the US where he was involved in various museum and land speculation ventures. Edwin Henry Ward died in 1878 which left Rowland Ward the only family member in the taxidermy business in England. Edwin Jr's eldest son Herbert Frederick Ward (1863 - 1919) became a bird collector on expeditions to Australia, New Zealand and Borneo and was in the Congo with Henry Morton Stanley in 1887.

Knapsack Manual For Sportsmen On The Field

Knapsack Manual For Sportsmen On The Field: A Guide To Big-Game Hunting And Taxidermy by Edwin Ward (1872) was a private publication which was the fore-runner of his brother, Rowland Ward's book, 'The Sportsman's Guide To Collecting And Preserving Trophies'. The book appears to be more of an advertisement for the Ward taxidermy business, rather than a field guide. It includes the details of setting up a tiger mount which would hardly be attempted in the field by a sportsman. It includes directions on how to skin and preserve specimens, with lists of game to be found in various parts of the world.



James Rowland Ward

James Rowland Ward (1848 - 1912) was a British taxidermist and founder of the taxidermy firm Rowland Ward Ltd of Piccadilly. The company specialized in, and was renowned for their work on big game trophies.

Rowland Ward
James Rowland Ward

A Naturalist's Life Study In The Art Of Taxidermy

A Naturalist's Life Study In The Art Of Taxidermy by Rowland Ward (1913) is Ward's own story of the famous firm of taxidermists, originally printed for private circulation. It is believed that as few as fifty copies of the first edition were produced.


For old rare copies of Rowland Ward's Records Of Big Game and Rowland Ward's Sportsman's Handbook


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