this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
11 points (100.0% liked)

For sharing fascinating artifacts and replicas

8 readers
1 users here now

Just a magazine for everyone to share artifacts and replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

founded 1 year ago
11
1731 Lion of Gripsholm Castle, poorly stuffed due to the taxidermist's unfamiliarity with lions, resulting in a comically deformed face (media.kbin.social)
submitted 9 months ago by Deykun@kbin.social to c/HistoryArtifacts@kbin.social
4 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Deykun@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The Lion of Gripsholm Castle is a notable example of bad taxidermy located in Gripsholm Castle, Sweden. The Lion is badly stuffed and is considered to have a comically deformed face.[1]

In 1731, the dey of Algiers presented King Frederick I of Sweden with a lion, one of the first lions in Scandinavia.[2] When alive, the lion was kept in a cage near Junibacken. When the lion died, it was stuffed and mounted; however, the taxidermist and the museum-keepers had never actually seen a lion before, and did not know how they were supposed to look.[3] The taxidermist mostly based the reconstruction off of historic artwork of lions. As a result, the mount was especially anatomically inaccurate, most apparent in its face.

In the 21st century, the badly-stuffed lion has been widely mocked.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_of_Gripsholm_Castle

[โ€“] jlow@beehaw.org 1 points 9 months ago

This seems weird, did the taxidermist not get the corpse but just the fur or something? Otherwise they would have seen what I lion looks like (although a dead one).