Taxidermy as a Victorian Art Form.www.Taxidermy4cash.com

Collectors very frequently acquire specialized knowledge about their collections. To understand how this works, one would have to be a collector or to understand the collector mentality. Most collectors do not collect just to possess the items in their collections, but because the items fascinate them and they want to learn as much about them as they can. This is demonstrated by those who have written books on this subject.

Taxidermy Collectors and Collections
We are in contact with many serious collectors globally sharing both knowledge and experiences of taxidermy colecting and regulations that govern this trade, I was on the path of becoming a serious collector myself (funds being the most obvious limiting factor), but then spent time with dealers and saw the other side of the coin :) Seeing others get "collector fever" cured me completely. This is not a crtisim, more just an observation. I understand the "mentality". (And I haven't lost the urge - except that now I collect in a more modest specialist fashion). The research I have done however into taxidermy's availability and worth is both extensive and detailed and is of course ongoing.

Collecting is about possession and ownership. With "investment collectors" it's the possession and ownership of valuables that have the potential to increase with time. With "passionate collectors" the motivations are very varied and complex, but at the end it boils down again to possession and ownership. The test is simple. Someone who has the means to be a collector but is primarily after knowledge will support the acquisition activities of museums, because that's the rational choice for increasing knowledge. A collector will buy the object for his own private collection (even if he then lends it for public display). And there's nothing wrong with collecting. It is both a very natural instinct and something that is accepted, and approved, by social norms and regulated by laws.

Serious collectors support both dealers and taxidermists alike. Most taxidermists activity is a rural based activity, and with the ban on fox hunting, the rural community needs all the support it can get. With the small band of both dedicated and wealthy collectors here in the UK, the price of Victorian Taxidermy would be significantly lower than the prices it commands today. "The Market" however will always determine the price of everything, and forms perhaps the basic law of economics. Serious taxidermy collectors have done much to preserve good quality taxidermy for future generations and to that end they should be applauded for both their disposable capital and foreseight of investment.

I am personally yet to be convinced that you could use a taxidermy collection as a retirement fund, partly due the to cyclical nature of antiques and the antiques market. We firmly believe however that in recent times taxidermy as an acceptible object to collect has come back into fashion, following a 30 year absence from the visible market place. Will it now return to another 30 years absence only remains to be seen. Perhaps the best / the greatest value in antiques is not money, but pleasure they bring to those who own them. Most Taxidermy cases, even Hutchings Foxes and Badgers, that were produced on an industrial scale, are unique in their own way. I have never seen cases that are identical, very similar yes, but never identical. Perhaps the best way to "value" an item is what would it cost you today from a dealer to replace the item that has been damaged / stolen or beyond practical restoration



Given the nature and scale of man's obsession with collecting both Victorian and modern taxidermy, we have had to dedicate an additional page to add some more cases for your perusal. Once again we hope that you enjoy them. The web page below has a written narative explaining collecting and also contained within this page are some additional taxidermy pictures of cases within one collection. Again it represent around 100 cases, which when combined with the web page below illustrates only 30% of the total cases within this collection


The following pictures still only relate to one collection, The Four Elms Collection. Arguably this is one of the largest and most comprehensive taxidermy collections in private hands in England. Many of the Victorian and Modern Taxidermists of merit are represented here

The aim of this webpage is to provide an insight into one collection. It demonstrates both the nature and extent of Victorian Taxidermy and the variety of what is currently available at a price. This collection (limited part thereof) also represents perhaps one of the largest private collections in the UK today and is representative of a significant number of both modern and Victorian taxidermists.

Antique taxidermy cases by example from the "Four Elms Collection". These pictures represent approximately one sixth of the total collection (over 650 cases), this does not include masks and shields. We hope you enjoy them.

For more infromation and images of this extensive collection then please go to. www.Taxidermy4cash.com and browse there for a while, there are some 2700 images to choose from.

This website is most likely the best in the world.www.Taxidermy4cash.com