LONDON, ENGLAND.- Squirrels playing cards, kittens taking tea and bunnies learning their ABC will be among the extraordinary and intriguing lots to be sold when international fine art auctioneers Bonhams sell the contents of Mr Potter’s Museum of Curiosities in Cornwall on 23/24th September. Close to 10,000 items will be sold, including 6,000 stuffed animals from the Victorian period collected by eccentric Walter Potter and still a major tourist attraction in the area.
The sale will be held at the museum, which is housed at the Jamaica Inn in Launceston, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall – a location immortalised by Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name. The collection has been catalogued by a team of specialists led by Jon Baddeley, Group Head of the Collectors Department at Bonhams. He said, “The Potter’s Museum Collection is without doubt one of the most unusual and eccentric collections ever to have been offered for sale. The ability of the exhibits of taxidermy to shock and entertain visitors today to the same extent as they were reported to have done 150 years ago, is remarkable. I very rarely use the word unique when describing pieces but the Potter’s Museum catalogue has very many examples – a truly wonderful collection that will draw collectors to the Jamaica Inn from far and wide”.
Established more than 160 years ago, the museum is based on the collection of taxidermy formed by Walter Potter (1835-1918) while living in Bramber, Sussex. As a boy, he taught himself to preserve birds and animals, and began his collection soon after leaving school. His first specimen was his pet canary, which is now more than 160 years old and one of the oldest pieces in the museum. The son of a Bramber innkeeper, Potter exhibited his taxidermy in the White Lion Inn and in doing so, created an added feature that attracted many new customers.
Taxidermy was used by the Victorians to study and understand animals and their physiology. In the late 1800s, it was thought fashionable to have deceased pets stuffed and cased, or mounted, and on display. Since there were no cinemas, and photography was very basic, it also allowed many people to see wild and exotic animals that they may not have seen before, or perhaps again.
The early years in Bramber saw Potter’s collection grow so large that a special building was built opposite his father’s inn to house it. Potter’s main income came from private commissions to preserve people’s pets. One example, a dog called Spot, belonged to Charles Charman, a local sportsman living near Bramber. One day, when in hot pursuit of a rat, Spot jumped out of a stable window and broke his shoulder. He was hurt so badly that he was put down. Charman commissioned Potter to preserve Spot who is now exhibit no.238 in the Museum of Curiosities. Incidentally, Spot was such a superb rat catcher that he provided many of the rats used in Potter’s tableaux.
Potter is best known for his arrangement of animals in anthropomorphic scenes. The Squirrels’ Club is one of his most famous, showing 18 European red squirrels socialising at their ‘club’. The creatures are seen sitting around tables enjoying a few glasses of port and a hand of poker (£4,000-6,000). Potter’s The Death of Cock Robin is considered another masterpiece. Finished in 1861, the intricate tableau took seven years to complete, contains 98 specimens of British birds and is regarded as one of the most sought-after and important arrangements in the collection. Potter’s inspiration for the display came after seeing the story of Cock Robin illustrated in a nursery rhyme book belonging to his sister, Jane (£5,000-7,000).
Another, The Kittens’ Wedding, was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum three years ago in a special exhibition titled Inventing New Britain – The Victorian Vision. As one of the largest and most impressive scenes in the sale, it is expected to fetch in excess of £8,000. It was completed in 1898 and documented by the museum as Potter’s last large work. When it was made, the Victorians deemed Potter’s arrangement as a major achievement of taxidermy. Even more remarkable is that all the animals are fully clothed. The kittens even wear frilly knickers under their formal attire!
The Bunnies’ School shows typical classroom scenes in 1888 with four classes and a total of 48 rabbits dressed as school children. Again Potter’s attention to detail is staggering. The younger rabbits are writing with chalk on slate, presumably learning handwriting, while the older ones use ink on paper. Some rabbits are doing needlework and others stand reading about the opening of Westminster Bridge in 1862 (£3,000-5,000).
Rare wild animals in the collection include a Wandering Albatross that has been part of the collection since the 1880s. It has what is claimed to be the biggest wingspan of any bird in the world measuring 9ft 10inches, and is one of several record breakers in the sale. A stuffed elephant’s head (£2,000-3,000), a polar bear (£4,000-6,000), camel (£1,000-1,500), giraffe (£1,500-2,000) and a black rhino’s head (£5,000-8,000) are also to be sold.
An impressive grizzly bear in the collection may be recognised by viewers of the hit 1970s BBC TV sitcom Steptoe & Son. Seen every week in Steptoe’s living room, the bear is estimated at £2,000-3,000. Another animal to achieve notoriety in the public domain is a stuffed puma used in a hoax pulled off by The Daily Mirror. Photographed prowling the back streets of Surrey in 1966, the puma convinced the British public that a wild beast was on the loose (£1,000-2,000). Smaller animals in the collection include the well-loved ferret known for roaming around the trousers of Compo in BBC TV’s Last of the Summer Wine (£150-200).
More unusual pieces include a selection of so-called ‘freaks’, that is, animals born with severe abnormalities. A two-headed lamb, a two-faced kitten and a duck with four legs were all given to the museum by local farmers, and stuffed by Potter to retain their rare and unusual characteristics. In Victorian times, the shocking disfigurements were found intriguing and drew many visitors to the museum.
The collection has been based in several locations and under various ownerships, but now belongs to Mr and Mrs John Watts, proprietors of The Jamaica Inn. The sale of the museum, and its possible relocation to America, was rumoured in the national press in 1986. When the couple read the article they were spurred into action and viewed it immediately. Mr Watts says ‘We fell in love with the collection and its eccentricity, and ended up buying it’.
The Jamaica Inn premises were undergoing an extension to build 10 extra bedrooms when the couple viewed the museum. Mr and Mrs Watts decided not to go ahead with the original plans, but to display the collection in the new building. As a result, the Jamaica Inn has been home to Mr Potter’s Museum of Curiosities for the past 17 years. During this time, with advice and guidance from Dr. Pat Morris, a leading authority on taxidermy in the UK, Mr. and Mrs. Watts, with the late Mike Grace, their resident taxidermist, have restored and maintained the entire collection.
The Museum attracts more than 30,000 visitors each year, and although the stuffed animals are one of the main attractions, it keeps a large selection of other curiosities under the same roof such as fossils, glass eyes, Victorian greetings cards, dolls’ houses, African spears, juke boxes, Queen Victoria’s enamel bath from the Royal Train, coral, tools, badges, a selection of hat pins, scent bottles and the world’s biggest shoe, which was on show at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
All are included in Bonhams’ sale, which follows the retirement of Mr and Mrs Watts. The Jamaica Inn business has been taken over by younger members of the family who will transform the building into the 10 bedroom extension that was originally planned. Other contributing factors to its closure include the death of the resident taxidermist and the pending retirement of the curator of the museum.
