Fish Taxidermy

Fish Taxidermy

For Victorian and Edwardian fishermen, however, taking a photo of their catch once it was safely ashore was not too practical. You could take a photo, but it took valuable fishing time to set up the old fashioned camera. The nineteenth century fisherman needed to prove his skill using a more ancient craft - that of taxidermy.

Fish Taxidermy

The Victorians had a somewhat unhealthy desire to shoot, catch and kill virtually anything that moved so it could be stuffed and mounted over the mantelpiece. A cloud of disapproval has been hovering over the world of taxidermy for the last forty years, primarily because no one valued stuffed animals as anything more than theatrical curiosities.

Fish Taxidermy

But since the late 1970's interest in taxidermy of all types has been rising, and prices have risen accordingly. Whilst environmental concerns have made taxidermy a brave choice for interior decoration, stuffed fish  escape this disapproval. With over 4 million anglers merrily pursuing their sport, it is difficult even for extremists to condemn fishing. And if you allow people to catch fish, then stuffing them is difficult to condemn too. A pike in a glass case is fine. A badger in a glass case is still considered offensive by many.

Fish Taxidermy

Because of this uncriticised status, stuffed fish have shot up in price over the past decade, far beyond most of their animal cousins. Not only are there legions of anglers out there more than happy to shell out a few bob for a fine specimen, but they don't get chastised for it either. Fishing theme pubs and restaurants have helped prices along, with their incessant demand for stuffed fish to display on the walls. Just how strong prices are can be gauged from Christie's sale  when the auctioneers sold off a collection of stuffed fish from The Bride of Denmark public house. Lots offered included a bowfronted cased pike which fetched $550 and a fine group of five roach in a large case nearly a yard square which made $2000

Fish Taxidermy

But by no means alt 'stuffed fish' are stuffed! The problem with stuffing a fish is that you have to skin it, preserve the skin, and then replace the skin and jaws back over an artificial body. If you are going to all that trouble, do you really need to stuff the actual fish, couldn't you just opt instead for a fake representation of it? Alongside the genuine real stuffed fish, you see plaster fish, and even wooden carvings. In no  sense are these wooden depictions taxidermy, and as mere semblance's of fish, whether or not they truly reflect the size of the real fish is a secret preserved between the carver and the angler.

Fish Taxidermy

These are, if you like, the most politically correct fish trophies in the antiques world, and can be exquisite examples of the woodcarver's art. Though it is the painting rather than the carving that truly brings alive these wooden fish. How well the artist succeeds in lending the carving the true colour and sheen of the real thing, feeds into the piece's value at auction. They may not be true angling trophies, but they qualify as works of art in their own right. Bonhams sold a typical example of these wooden fish in their specialist fishing sale held in London last August. Based on a fish caught by the tackle maker J S Sharpe who displayed it in his shopwindow in Aberdeen, this model of a 46.51b cock salmon made an astonishing $8500 on a hefty estimate of $3000-5000. Another carved wooden salmon in the same sale by C Farlow and Sons fetched just $3000 lacking the same provenance.

Fish Taxidermy

As a halfway house between real taxidermy and the complete fabrication that is a wooden fish carving, plaster fish were a cheaper solution. Instead of an elaborate preservation of the real fish, the taxidermist would knock out a plaster model of it. To add a bit of authenticity the jawbones were taken from the original fish and inserted into the plaster model. Plaster fish benefit from an absence of the 'yuck' factor surrounding something dead hanging on the wall. No surprise then that a fine plaster salmon model by P Spicer and sons was entered by Bonhams on an estimate of $2000-$3000 last year although the price was a little optimistic and it remained unsold.

Fish Taxidermy

Even with the 'kosher', straight from the water, stuffed fish you only get an artificial reflection of the original in any case. The eyes are glass, the skin varnished, and the whole body cavity filled with kapok and arsenic to ward off any bugs. They don't fetch as much as the carved wood examples either, but as the closest thing to the living fish these are the exhibits that the discerning stuffed fish collector will pounce on. Price is a complex melange of factors. Naturally size matters as far as fishing trophies are concerned (angling is a predominantly male activity after all!).

Fish Taxidermy

Because the cost of sending your prize catch to the taxidermists for immortilization was never cheap, those fish stuffed were normally the largest specimens caught. And you can get some absolute mammoth salmon in excess of 4olbs and upwards. But you shouldn't get obsessed with size pure and simple. Artistry is just as important. The setting for a fish is as crucial as its proportions.

Fish Taxidermy

The basic background was a murky blue-green painted backdrop, but most taxidermists were a little more creative. Dried grasses and sedges were placed in clumps at the ends of the cases along with rock and gravel. How well this subaqua world is composed makes an impact on the selling price. For specimens caught with a fly, such as salmon, trout and grayling, a convention developed that the actual fly that lured the fish was included in the case, often poking out from the lip of the fish, with a length of taut line extending to the corner of the case.    

Fish Taxidermy

 As with any antique, quality is the bedrock on which a high price for a stuffed fish rests. Along with the internal decor of the case, the shape of the case deserves a mention. Bowed cases usually achieve a premium over the standard rectangular case, though overall condition is critical. Those taxidermists sufficiently proud of their work placed a label in the corner of the case. The top name in the fish stuffing industry is iohn Cooper of London, and his mark attracts top money from collectors. Again Bonhams had a few of his works in their sale last August, one particularly fine cased roach selling for $1000 (est. $500-700

Fish Taxidermy

The fish itself makes a big difference to price. As flyfishing has always been the preferred form of the sport for the wealthy fisherman, salmon are one of the commonest subjects. But pike, the king of the coarse fisherman's quarries, is perhaps the most frequent fish stuffed and cased. Fish that would rarely be the subject of the taxidermist's attentions can fetch money as rarities, although price is always affected by the fish's visual impact. A stuffed gudgeon might be unusual but it lacks the presence of a supersized pike. With that in mind you can see why the stuffed eel sold by Bonhams last summer fetched only $200 (est. $100-$

Fish Taxidermy

As with all collectables that have benefited from a rise over the last decade those industrious fellows in the Orient have quickly furnished the warehouses of West London with a fine array of cheap modern alternatives. Given that many of the original 'stuffed' fish contained little or no actual fish, one can hardly call the modern cased fish 'fakes'.



They have all the decorative appeal of the originals, and usually include a gilt inscription on the case with a spurious angler and the date of the catch. Even at the warehouse they aren't cheap with the larger specimens selling for $400 and that's wholesale. However,

Fish Taxidermy

I have seen them passed off at antiques fairs as the genuine Edwardian cased examples, so buyers should beware. They are easy to distinguish from  the originals because they use a Perspex front which will bend when pressed, unlike the glass of the real thing, and the whole case weighs next to nothing in comparison to the originals.

Fish Taxidermy

They look the part but they do have their faults. I picked one up second hand for the incredible price of £20 at a car boot sale in Ruislip. I put it up for sale in the window of an antiques centre in Harrow, as a modern copy for £50. Unfortunately the sunlight caused condensation on the inside of the case. Even worse, the fake rocks in the case, which were made out of foam rubber, split wide open in the heat!

Fish Taxidermy

Stuffed fish may be an acquired taste, but they occupy a position at the top of the angling collectibles market. With the exception of the best quality rods and tackle from top makers like Hardys, there are few pieces of angling kit that can beat them in the auction room. Even if you wouldn't give them houseroom, or think them relics of a barbaric past, you can't deny that they can be valuable and are highly sought after by some - One man's meat, or fish in this case, may be another's poison, but there's always a collector out there willing to buy! 

Fish Taxidermy

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