1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser
AAAH! AAAH! TAKE IT AWAY!

18th Century Taxidermy Unkind to Noble Lion

by Max Eddy | 2:56 pm, April 11th, 2011

This is, or rather was, a Lion. How did this happen to a majestic king of the Saranghetti? The story goes that in 1731 King Frederick I of Sweden received a lion as a gift from the Bey of Algiers, and was so enamored with the beast that when it died he tried to have the beast taxidermied. After all, what was a source of prestige in life could continue long after death when properly stuffed and mounted.

The only trouble was that for whatever reason, the taxidermist was only given the pelt and the bones of the beast to work from. The story goes that the poor taxidermist, lacking the modern conveniences of Wikipedia and Google image search just didn’t have the find understanding of large feline bone structure to put together a convincing facsimile. What you see above is the result.

Now, I am no expert, but I think that’s only half the story, because when seen from the side the lion actually has quite a ferocious appearance.

In this context, the lion’s bizarre tongue and fake teeth make some kind of sense. Even the close-set position of the eyes seems to have been done in order to make them appear furrowed and angry. Perhaps the taxidermist simply focused too much on side-view images when mounting the pelt, or the lion was (somehow) never intended to be seen from more than one angle. We’ll likely never know the truth about what happened to King Frederick’s lion, but its bizarre appearance has given it a measure of immortality that mere taxidermy never could. In that way, the unnamed taxidermist truly out did himself.

(The Daily What, As Good as it Gets via Neatorama)

  • Kuduie

    *Serengeti

  • http://twitter.com/colmbuckley Colm Buckley

    At a guess, I’d say that the taxidermist was aiming for his lion to look like lions as depicted in heraldry – the protruding tongue seems to be a major feature of heraldic lions for some reason. The posture is close to the classic heraldic “passant” post (although the left paw is raised rather than the right). The guess about the lion’s only being intended to be viewed from the side strikes me as right on the money.

  • Eliza

    This lion lived a while in captivity on the island of Djurgarden in Stockholm, an island reserved at that time for the king’s hunting forays. Of course the taxidermist had no or very faint concept of what live lions were like. I have seen this beast in the attic of Gripsholms Castle and it’s an experience to meet this tilting bewildered beast.

  • Fdv222

    nudge, nudge, wink, wink

  • Megan

    Or maybe the lion just always looked like that.


Abrams Media Network click here for advertising opportunities

© 2012 Geekosystem, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram