This project was certainly not my typical commission – after all, it’s not every day I have a tiger on my workbench!

Moth-bitten, sun damaged and dusty…this antique taxidermy Bengal Tiger was in such a sorry state when it first came in to me, that it looked more like a lioness!

My client was second guessing whether or not to send it straight to the tip after inheriting it as a family heirloom, that has been largely unloved and forgotten about over the years.

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The tiger remains were originally part of a trophy rug that were largely popular back in the Victorian era, then later re-constructed by a groundskeeper in the 1960’s into a bit of a diorama, to ‘save’ what was left after moths had made a banquet of it over the years.

The Unveiling

What remains of the rug, was most importantly, the head, the right forearm and some additional scraps of hide that I discovered after dismantling the inventive diorama it arrived to me on.

Now that the head was off of the base – it revealed some treasure beneath that lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole in to the tiger’s origin.

The wooden base on the bottom of the head produced a makers mark, displaying the interwoven initials – ‘T.B’.

This indicated that this Tiger was indeed preserved by the hand of the Theobald Brothers of Mysore. One of the leading taxidermists of the time in Colonial India.

There is not a huge amount of literature on them, but from historical records and what I have read on this interesting article, it’s believed that the Theobald brothers failed at patenting their invention of Papier-mâché mannequins, leading to another taxidermist taking this new method and running with it – and doing it better.

This taxidermist, was Mr. Eugene Van Ingen, whose work is very sought after, even today.

The Restoration Process

Initial treatment

Given the fact that I have never taken on a project quite like this before, where do I start?

Well, first thing’s first, let’s get that moth damage under control! To eliminate the risk of any moths/larvae still being present and potentially damaging other taxidermy in my workshop, I put the tiger in the deep freeze straight away for over 2 weeks to kill any remaining pests that can cause further damage.

As I had just moved premises and ordered in a brand new freezer that was empty, it made the process very easy, thankfully. It would be a struggle to squeeze in even a harvest mouse in my very full specimen freezer at the moment!

As a taxidermist in the 21st century with access to all kinds of new materials and methods, it’s exciting for me to see just how different taxidermy processes were at the end of the 1800’s. Upon removing the original eyes, I was quite astonished to see two, round wooden cut outs that would have been hand painted with oil paint to create the pupil and iris, before the round glass cabochons were installed. Sadly, this paint had dried out and simply crumbled away over the years.

Nowadays, most taxidermists use either glass or acrylic faux eyes, which have a high quality print of the eye itself that is encased within it, so hopefully future taxidermy specimens eyes will stay in better condition in the years to come. This is the type that I replaced the original eyes with, giving a brand new sparkle back in to the most important part of any taxidermy specimen – the windows of the soul!

Adding Colour & Life

With the eyes now installed, I proceeded with a deep clean of the fur. After using my pet-dryer to blow away the dust (and moth larvae and excrement in this case), I used a mixture of isopropyl alcohol watered down, applied with a soft cloth to give the fur a deep clean.

Not only does it remove grease and dirt, it dries pretty quickly without causing damage to the fur. For more stubborn areas, a simple concoction of washing up liquid with warm water will do the trick too. It’s always advisable to do a test patch in an inconspicuous area when working with antique taxidermy, especially if using harsher chemicals to see how the fur/skin will react.

With the tiger now squeaky clean and prepped, it’s the for the most transformative part – the colour!

Now, before deciding what was the best method of colouring would be, I did some research and found this fantastic scientific paper about recolouring faded taxidermy specimens in museums. The paper explains the outcomes of tests they conducted on bleached bison fur, with use of acrylic taxidermy paint (water based emulsion), “lacquer” taxidermy paint (solvent-based acrylic emulsion), Orasol dyes, and XSL pigments.

Although the Orasol dyes and XSL pigments produce the most naturalistic results on the fur, the tests that were conducted, conclude that it is easily transferrable upon touch and easily reversible, so future vacuuming and cleaning could remove the paintwork. It also did not seem to penetrate the hair shafts very much.

Although acrylic spray paints produce a more matte, stiff feel to the fur, it seems to be the best solution for coverage of the hair, plus the process is largely non-reversible and doesn’t transfer upon contact, too. Because I want this restoration work to last for as long as possible, the slightly changed texture of the fur that was already in terrible condition, was a small sacrifice to pay for a greater longevity of vibrant colour over time. I am super happy and quite astonished at the results of the recolouring – what a difference it has made!

Finishing touches

I think the most satisfying part of this project, was most definitely adding in the whiskers. It was so therapeutic and I nearly went overboard with it!

I used strands of horse hair for this, superglued in to the roots of the muzzle, which produced quite natural results. However, I can’t really take the credit for this – I want to thank my wonderful partner, Malachai at the House of Felts for this trick, as he gave me the tip after he used the same technique on some of his amazing felted creations!

Now all the pieces were complete, it was time to install her on to the base I had previously made. It was quite tricky to get the balance right, as I only had one paw/arm and knew I would have to get creative to make a somewhat anatomically correct position.

I achieved this by raising the head up and mounting it on to a wooden frame, which in turn allowed me to install the remaining arm on to it, too. Faux fur was then fashioned around the wooden support, to create a ‘neck’ which was later airbrushed to simulate the colours of the existing hide.

The artificial log strategically positioned, along with the foliage managed to cover the void and absence of another arm. However, I still wasn’t happy with the balance.

To combat this issue, I decided to remove one of the claws from the existing paw to make a cast of it. I made a few replica claws and fixed them to the last scrap of fur that was remaining from the rug. I then moulded the scrap of fur/skin in to a paw shape and fixed it on to the artificial log. I think this helped the balance immensely, whilst looking quite convincing at the same time!