Kendall House Antiques Ltd. has dated these Victorian Cased Taxidermy Kingfishers to the 1890s.
GUNN OF NORWICH: Thomas Edward Gunn 1844 -1923. From the mid 1880’s Gunn’s premises were at 86 Giles street, later acquiring numbers 84 and 85. Generally his cases of taxidermy are of the traditionally box type, and glazed only to the front. I believe the rationale behind this, is that less light means less fading.
By the 1880’s his fame had spread far and wide, and the quality of the firm’s best work was never bettered. Thomas Gunn died on Friday the 13th July 1923. The business was continued by his son Frederick Ernest Gunn. The quality of F E Gunn’s work remained high. Many of these later cases now glazed to the front and two sides. Frederick eventually retired in 1941 at the age of 72, the shop, which had been damaged by enemy bombs was eventually closed and his father’s own collection of birds was donated to the British Museum.
The majority of these notes have been taken from ‘A History of British Taxidermy’ by C. Frost, the following is a direct extract “The Ogilvie collection at Ipswich Museum is preserved entirely in its original form, which offers a unique opportunity of seeing the supreme workmanship of T.E. Gunn, and anyone interested in the subject should go along to see it: you will never see anything better”.
Kendall House Antiques Ltd. has dated these Victorian Cased Taxidermy Kingfishers to the 1890s.
Kendall house antiques a traditional shop in the north cotswold’s market town of chipping campden.
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Taxidermy – Pair of Kingfishers by the Famous Norwich Taxidermist T. E. Gunn. Circa 1890.
