A c.1900 Taxidermy Mounted Tiger Head on Shield

Origin: English
Period: Late Nineteenth / Early Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1900   
Depth: 5 inches (at maximum)
Width: 15 inches (with shield)
Height: 20 inches (with shield)

Once upon a time, there was a tiger named Tim who was pretty useless at hunting and went hungry.  He was always asking the other animals for food, the lion said, "No!"  The Toucans said, "No!"  in fact, the whole rainforest said, "NO!!!!"  The tiger went away sad and hungry and decided to move to England and live with his estranged uncle in Yorkshire.

Tim was a rather unruly and unkempt chap, not taking too much time on his appearance and was known to be a bit of a lazy eccentric. He got a job at the local golf course as a greens keeper and became a permanent fixture at the Walnut Tree pub in York where he would sit down to have two pints each night with his chums, Eric the elephant, George the giraffe and Paul the panda. Tim had many a scrape in the pub and didn't get on too well with Bill the buzzard, who, one night attacked poor old tim with his long beak, almost taking his ear off. Most of the other animals, it has to be said, had a fondness for Tim and his lackadaisical ways. Tim later married the landlady, Tabatha and they had two girls, Tilly and Tululu.

Tim was preserved by his daughters, and though not expert taxidermists, they still managed to capture the semblance of Tim albeit without his lower jaw. We present him to you, his half head on a hardwood shield with heavy hanging chain, his ear still loose and with a fair bit of hair loss, but still the most exotic Yorkshireman you are ever likely to see.