John Gould

John Gould (1804-1881) is most well known for his world renowned bird books but in his early years he was one of the country's leading taxidermists. John Gould was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset and his family moved to Windsor in 1818. As a young lad he did taxidermy in his spare time and earnt pocket money by selling his specimens to boys at Eton school. The British museum has two magpies which were shot and mounted by John Gould in 1818. In 1825 he started his own taxidrmy business in London. In 1826 he is believed to have become the first taxidermist to recieve a royal patronage being paid £3 by George IV to preserve his mouse deer. The following year he was appointed "Curator and preserver" to the Zoological society museum. His biggest commission and probably his most famous was a giraffe again for George IV-the first example of the species seen in England. In 1830 Gould aquired a collection of bird skins from the himalayas, after mounting them he decided to write his first book "A century of birds from the himalayan mountains". He resigned from the Zoological society in the mid 1830's to concentrate on his books and they were a great success for over 50 years. Gould still mounted specimens for his own collection and in his later years he appointed Henry Ward and his son Rowland to collect and mount specimens from America. As John Gould produced pieces for the museum and himself rather than the public, his work rarely comes up for sale.