Since I’ve read the haunting and beautiful novel Effigy by Allisa York some years ago I’ve been more than intrigued by taxidermy (I interviewed her for an online magazine where I found out what an exceptionally interesting person she is and the amount of research she’d done to accurately portray the taxidermy process). I think there is a definite beauty in the dead animal, although in itself it’s sort of a macabre thing of course. I remember being on holiday in France in the country and we stumbled upon a taxidermist who had collected a great range of stuffed animals. I seriously considered bringing a duckling back home, but then the ‘deadness’ of the animal still made more of an impression on me than it’s beauty, I just couldn’t get over the fact it had quacked once… Still, when we’re going to Paris this summer I would love to visit Deyrolle, famous for it’s taxidermie, entomology and curiosities.
{All photo’s via Deyrolle site}
