ADAM'S Country House Collections Day II - 14th October 2025

9 Country House Collections| 13 th - 14 th October 2025 400 A PAIR OF CASED TAXIDERMY TIGER HEADS BY GEORGE F. BUTT, 19TH CENTURY contained in simulated bamboo cas- es, raised on mahogany pedestals, with label ‘Geo. F. Butt & Co. Natural- ists & Furriers to the Royal Family, 49 Wigmore Street, London, W’ The cases 70.5cm high, 58.5cm deep, 64cm wide; the pedestals 99.5cm high, 53cm deep, 70cm wide George Frederick Butt served first as head taxidermist and lat- er as manager to his brother-in- law Edwin Ward, who operated from 49 Wigmore Street, Lon- don. Edwin was the eldest son of Rowland Ward (1848–1912), the pre-eminent London taxi- dermist renowned for his life- like mountings of big game and his celebrated animal furniture. Following Edwin’s retirement in 1879, Butt continued the Wig- more Street business under the Ward name, much to the dis- pleasure of Rowland Ward, who ultimately bought him out. Ex- amples signed by Butt under his own name date to the post buy- out period, though he remained at Wigmore Street until circa 1904, after which he relocated to Edgware Road. He was ‘Nat- uralist to the Royal Family’ and produced animal furniture in the similar manner as Ward. Among his notable commissions was an upright standing bear mounted as a dumb waiter for the Prince of Wales, referenced in William G. Fitzgerald’s 1895 The Strand Magazine article on ‘Animal Fur- niture’, a rare contemporary ac- count of this distinctive Victorian taste in decorative a rt. € 6,000 - 10,000