Stuffed birds under glass were popularized during the Victorian era. Ostentatious arrangements filled the cabinets, shelves, walls, and tables of nobility. Taxidermy shops selling birds of the wild were everywhere and soon common species for the middle class were also stuffed under glass domes.

The illustrated instruction book, The Ladies Manual of Art for Profit and Passtime, 1887, written by the American, Martha Maxwell, explains how even a hobbyist could learn the trade of taxidermy: “Take out the entrails; remove the skin with the greatest possible care; rub over the whole interior with arsenic, (a deadly poison); put wires from the head to the legs to preserve the natural form, and stuff immediately with tow, wool, or the like.” The birds were then arranged in papier mâché trees, sometimes with insects and butterflies to add to their splendor. And Voila! The sublime power of nature was captured under glass.

Not only the art of taxidermy, but both men’s and lady’s haute hat wear drained the swamps of Snowy Egrets, Pheasants, Owls, Hummingbirds, Grebes, and other species.

The Resplendent Quetzal was one of the most prized and beautiful of taxidermied specimens. Its wings and tail feathers could be splayed out and down into a dazzling arrangement of shimmering emerald, turquoise, and lime green. The birds were often given bright yellow glass eyes. The bird is not yet, but probably soon to be on the list of endangered species.

The Resplendent Quetzal has been called the most beautiful bird in the world. It lives in the wild forests of Guatemala. It is so revered that it is pictured on the nation’s flag. In indigenous Mayan stories the bird is the symbol of freedom because it would rather starve to death than remain in captivity. 

The idea of sublime romanticism is deeply imbedded in our experience of nature. On a splendid hike up a mountain, one can’t help but feel like the a solitary figure contemplating a viewpoint in a Casper David Friedrich painting. The Sublime is ever present in our minds as a canvas for our visual experiences.

The tide of the Sublime is now turning on me. I am beginning to see all the birds I encounter as fake feathered skins, neatly wired and attached to tree branches.

Posted July 25, 2022. 

Photos: Gilt wood fire screen in the Rococo Revival style containing exotic birds, English, c. 1855. From the book Under Glass, A Victorian Obsession by John Whitenight. 2013.  And Dome of Quetzals from a website called taxidermy 4 cash.