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A sporadic display of Victorian taxidermy birds, including a rare pair of huia birds, looks set to make thousands when it comes up for auction later this month – possibly flying up to £50,000.
The late-Victorian glazed case contains taxidermy specimens of birds of Australasia. Crafted by leading taxidermist Robert Clarke of Kings Lynn around 1900, the cluster contains a rose-crowned fruit dove, a Regent bower bird, a noisy pitta, a nightjar, and a magpie-lark, all mounted on a branched faux tree stump. However, what elevates the display is the presence of a pair of male and female New Zealand huia birds which are extinct species.
The huia wattlebird bird has an intriguing history. A rarity even before human settlement, the huia bird was confined to certain mountain ranges in the south-east of the north island. The female boasts a long arched beak with the male sporting a short stout beak. The plumage is blueish-black with a green iridescence with singular tail feathers with a white band. It holds a special place in Maori culture and oral tradition, being regarded as sacred.
The unique birds’ extinction was due to excessive hunting, (the skins and tail feathers were highly prized for specimens and hat ornaments of high-ranking persons) and deforestation.
The last sighting of a huia was over one hundred years ago in 1907.
Here the huia birds are preserved in their natural glory at a time when taxidermy of natural specimens was all the rage.
The case was consigned to Cotswold auctioneers Kinghams by a Herefordshire-based private client who had acquired it many years ago at an auction, where the species had gone unidentified.
Estimated at £30,000-50,000, the ornithological display will appear in Kinghams’ Fine & Decorative Arts auction on July 25. The auction also includes a circa 1900 single-tail feather of the huia bird, which is estimated at £2,000-5,000. Such is the rarity of examples of the huia bird, a cased male and female sold for a record £220,000 at auction last year.
