In short
- The process is always skinning, preserving, building a form, fitting the skin, and finishing.
- Arsenical soap dominated preservation from the 1790s until the mid-twentieth century.
- Bodies evolved from straw and rags to wound excelsior, then clay-over-manikin, then foam.
- The methods are documented in printed manuals held in this archive.
Step one: skinning and preparation
The specimen is measured before anything is cut — historical manuals insist on this, because those measurements are the only record of the living proportions once the body is discarded. The skin is then opened along a concealed line, worked free of the carcass, and cleaned of all flesh and fat, which would otherwise rot or bleed grease through the hair or feathers.
Skulls and leg bones were often retained in nineteenth-century bird work and small-mammal work, cleaned and reused inside the mount as anchoring structure.
Step two: preserving the skin
Preservation is the step that decides whether a mount survives a century. Early collections failed because untreated skins were eaten by dermestid beetles and moth larvae within a few seasons.
Arsenical soap changed that. Brushed into the flesh side of the skin, it acted as both preservative and insecticide, and it is the reason so many Victorian mounts still exist. It is also why antique mounts should be handled with care: arsenic residue can remain active in the skin.
- Arsenical soap — the nineteenth-century standard preservative and insect deterrent.
- Alum and salt tawing — used for heavier mammal skins before commercial tanning.
- Borax — a safer twentieth-century substitute for small specimens.
- Modern commercial tanning — the current professional standard.
Step three: building the body
The artificial body is what separates crude work from lasting work, and its history is the clearest measure of the craft's progress. The earliest mounts were packed with straw, tow, or rags, which sagged and distorted as they dried.
Wound-excelsior bodies, bound tightly over a wire armature to a measured profile, gave far better control. Museum workers then began modelling clay over a rigid manikin so that individual muscles could be sculpted, an approach associated with the great habitat groups of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cast and, later, moulded polyurethane forms industrialised the same principle.
Steps four and five: fitting and finishing
The prepared skin is drawn over the form, the seams are stitched from the inside, and the mount is pinned, wrapped, and set while it dries so hair and feathers lie correctly. Glass eyes are bedded in modelling compound at the correct depth and angle — the detail that most reliably distinguishes skilled work.
Finishing restores what preservation removes: the moist tissue around the eyes, nose, and mouth is rebuilt and painted, shrinkage is filled, and the specimen is groomed. Cased birds were then set into painted habitat groundwork, itself a distinct Victorian speciality.
Reading the methods first-hand
The clearest account of these methods is in the manuals themselves. The archive catalogues instructional books from 1771 to the present, including the Victorian titles that set the standard for both amateur and professional practice.
The sequence has not changed: a taxidermist working today still measures, skins, preserves, forms, fits, and finishes. What changed is the chemistry and the form — commercial tanning in place of arsenical soap, moulded polyurethane in place of wound excelsior. Because the catalog runs through books published in the last few years as well as the historical manuals, both halves of that story can be read side by side.
Frequently asked questions
How does taxidermy work?
Taxidermy works by separating the animal's skin from its body, chemically stabilising that skin so bacteria and insects cannot destroy it, and then fitting it over a sculpted form that reproduces the animal's anatomy. Eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are replaced with modelled or manufactured parts, and the finished mount is groomed and painted.
What chemicals are used in taxidermy?
Historically the key preservative was arsenical soap — arsenic trioxide combined with soap, camphor, and potash — used from the late eighteenth century into the twentieth. Alum and salt-based tawing were also common. Modern practice uses commercial tanning solutions, borax, and non-toxic preservatives instead of arsenic.
How long does a taxidermy mount take?
In a historical studio, a bird could be prepared in a day, while a large mammal head might take several weeks once tanning, drying, and finishing were counted. Full-size museum groups took months, because the anatomical form had to be sculpted from measurements and reference before any skin was fitted.
How can you tell if a mount is antique?
Clues include a hand-packed or wood-and-wire body rather than moulded foam, hand-blown glass eyes, period case construction with wavy glass and papered backboards, arsenic residue, maker's labels, and postures that follow the conventions of nineteenth-century manuals.