James Rowland Ward (1848-1912) Tortoise Taxidermy

James Rowland Ward (1848-1912) Tortoise Taxidermy
One the finest and fit for A Royal Family, taxidermy 19th century taxidermy turtle fitted with a cylinder music box by arguably one of the best regarded taxidermist of his time James Rowland Ward (1848–1912), a Rowland Ward Limited of Piccadilly, London. Measuring approx 36" long x 24" wide x 18" tall. Overall in good condition as shown, some losses and dust soil consistent with age. See photos. James Rowland Ward was a British taxidermist and founder of the firm Rowland Ward Limited of Piccadilly, London. The company specialized in and was renowned for its taxidermy work on birds and big-game trophies, but it did other types of work as well. Rowland Ward has been a world-renowned brand in the sporting and outdoor market since 1870. James Rowland Ward (1848–1912), a British taxidermist, founded the firm Rowland Ward Limited of Piccadilly, London, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The company specialized in and was renowned for its taxidermy work on birds and big-game trophies, but it did other types of work as well. In creating many practical items from antlers, feathers, feet, skins, and tusks, the Rowland Ward company made fashionable items from animal parts, such as zebra-hoof inkwells, antler furniture, and elephant-feet umbrella stands. Rowland Ward was also a well-known publisher of natural history and big-game hunting narratives. The most famous and enduring Rowland Ward Ltd. product is the Records of Big Game series of books, which started in 1892 and is now in its thirtieth edition (2019). These books contain measurements of game animals from all over the world and is the oldest such series of books in existence. Even before Rowland Ward’s time, the Ward family had been involved in taxidermy and natural history. According to the history of the Rowland Ward company by P. A. Morris, Rowland Ward’s grandfather was a naturalist and dealer in animal skins, and Edwin Henry Ward (1812–1878), Rowland Ward’s father, was a very well-known taxidermist in his day. Edwin H. Ward traveled with John James Audubon on his expeditions, and Ward collected and prepared the bird skins for the artist. These specimens were later used by Audubon in his epic The Birds of America. Edwin H. Ward set up a taxidermy shop in London in 1857 and received a royal warrant from Queen Victoria in 1870. Other distantly related Ward family members had taxidermy-related businesses as far away as New York and Australia. Edwin H. Ward had two sons, Edwin Jr. and James Rowland. Both were trained in their father’s business and were successful on their own, mounting heads for the British royal family as well the empress of Austria, among others. Edwin Jr. left the taxidermy business and eventually moved to the United States where he was involved in various ventures. Edwin Jr.’s son, Herbert Ward (1863–1919), served as a zoologist for Henry Stanley during Stanley’s 1887–1888 Emin Pasha Expedition into the interior of then-unknown Africa. Rowland Ward became the best-known taxidermist of the family. In his own book, A Naturalist’s Life Study, he said he left school at age fourteen to work in his father’s shop. Rowland helped his father mount a humming-bird collection for John Gould. Early on, his focus was on sculpting and anatomically correct modeling. Rowland Ward was also a bronze sculptor of note. By 1870 all three Wards operated taxidermy shops of their own in England. Then Edwin Jr. left for the United States and Edwin H. Ward died in 1878, and these events left Rowland Ward the only family member in the taxidermy business in England. In the later part of the nineteenth century, Rowland Ward located his shop at 167 Piccadilly, London. From far and wide, in newspapers and in casual speech throughout the Empire, his shop was famously referred to as the “The Jungle.”
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