The store box, James Gardner Naturalist to Victoria.
Feb 7, 2017 12:32:15 GMT
deliasfanatic, trehopr1, and 2 more like this
Post by nomad on Feb 7, 2017 12:32:15 GMT
The store box, James Gardner the Naturalist to Queen Victoria
While helping out in a museum recently, I was looking through stacks of old store boxes to evaluate their contents ; many of them contained smaller collections donated to the museum. There had been a major infestation in the 1980s and then everything had been frozen and I saw no recent signs of dermestids. Some store boxes held a smattering of donated, often badly set foreign insects but their were treasures here as well. One large store box held hundreds of beautifully curated British Microlepidoptra, many from the great collecting localities of the New Forest and Wicken Fen, hours and hours of endless enjoyment and labour in that one collection held with a single store box. Another store box held some fine British aberrations and a long series of the extinct British Plebejus argus ssp. masseyi from the mosses of Westmoreland.
You can tell the old 19th century store boxes, they have rounded ends, and many are extremely well made, one held an early collection of the larger British Moths, these had no data except the collectors name. I admired a row of the now extinct and beautiful little Acontia trabealis from the East Anglican Breckland, but it was the store box label that caught my eye "James Gardner. Naturalist to the Royal Family. 52 High Holborn and 292 Oxford Street, corner of Davies Street, London. I had never seen that on a label before, "Naturalist to the Royal Family". I would have said from its contents that the store box was made in the latter part of the 19th Century c1870-1890.
The store box label.
My investigation proved that there were three generations of James Gardners working in London as naturalists between 1840-1920. A James Gardner was well established at 52 High Holborn Street and 426 Oxford Street in the 1850s as a Taxidermist and an Entomologist ; he advertised and gave reports on birds and insects that he collected in early magazines such as the Zoologist and Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer. He was certainly a keen collector of Lepidoptera and had a private collection. His Son followed in his footsteps and James Gardner junior is listed at 52 High Holbern Street in the 1869 street register as a Naturalist.
Label from a mounted bird specimen from James Gardner.
According to least one taxidermist website, James Gardner senior and junior worked separately, perhaps there had been a family disagreement? However, is not clear if this is in fact true, for on an old label shown here from a mounted bird specimen reads ' Natural Listing Depot. Bird & Animal preserver, Farrier & Plumassier, 426 Oxford Street London. Branch depots 52 High Holburn and 292 Oxford Street, Corner of Davies Street....the Largest collection of birds, eggs and insects in the Kingdom, manufacturers of entomological apparatus'. With three premises, this looks to me like a family run business.
Were father and son competitors, perhaps certainly in an artistic sense? In the book, The International Exhibition of 1862, both were advertising their Taxidermy with adverts placed together. One James Gardner at 292 Oxford Street and 52 High Holbern London (the same as the store box label) and another at 426 Oxford Street, London, bird preserver to the Queen of England. According to one National Trust website, which has mounted birds by James Gardner senior, he had the Royal warrant from Queen Victoria, it seems that James Gardner Junior was perhaps included within this 'family' license.
The Gardners seem to have made a number of the cheaper collectors cabinets, which could be utilized for both butterflies and bird's eggs and looked liked ordinary furniture and they also made quality cabinets but the Gardners never merited a mention in either of the tomes, The Aurelian Legacy or The Aurelian's Fireside Companion, they certainly were not one of the established London cabinet makers such as Brady or Gurney.
By 1890, a James Gardner had moved from 426 Oxford Street to No 29 Oxford Street and the third generation James Gardner was still there and at 52 High Holbern Street ; three years later the business then closed. As a James Gardner was still at 52 High Holbern Street in 1917 and his grandfather advertised from there in 1856, this looks to have been the family home as well as a business center.
While helping out in a museum recently, I was looking through stacks of old store boxes to evaluate their contents ; many of them contained smaller collections donated to the museum. There had been a major infestation in the 1980s and then everything had been frozen and I saw no recent signs of dermestids. Some store boxes held a smattering of donated, often badly set foreign insects but their were treasures here as well. One large store box held hundreds of beautifully curated British Microlepidoptra, many from the great collecting localities of the New Forest and Wicken Fen, hours and hours of endless enjoyment and labour in that one collection held with a single store box. Another store box held some fine British aberrations and a long series of the extinct British Plebejus argus ssp. masseyi from the mosses of Westmoreland.
You can tell the old 19th century store boxes, they have rounded ends, and many are extremely well made, one held an early collection of the larger British Moths, these had no data except the collectors name. I admired a row of the now extinct and beautiful little Acontia trabealis from the East Anglican Breckland, but it was the store box label that caught my eye "James Gardner. Naturalist to the Royal Family. 52 High Holborn and 292 Oxford Street, corner of Davies Street, London. I had never seen that on a label before, "Naturalist to the Royal Family". I would have said from its contents that the store box was made in the latter part of the 19th Century c1870-1890.
The store box label.
My investigation proved that there were three generations of James Gardners working in London as naturalists between 1840-1920. A James Gardner was well established at 52 High Holborn Street and 426 Oxford Street in the 1850s as a Taxidermist and an Entomologist ; he advertised and gave reports on birds and insects that he collected in early magazines such as the Zoologist and Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer. He was certainly a keen collector of Lepidoptera and had a private collection. His Son followed in his footsteps and James Gardner junior is listed at 52 High Holbern Street in the 1869 street register as a Naturalist.
Label from a mounted bird specimen from James Gardner.
According to least one taxidermist website, James Gardner senior and junior worked separately, perhaps there had been a family disagreement? However, is not clear if this is in fact true, for on an old label shown here from a mounted bird specimen reads ' Natural Listing Depot. Bird & Animal preserver, Farrier & Plumassier, 426 Oxford Street London. Branch depots 52 High Holburn and 292 Oxford Street, Corner of Davies Street....the Largest collection of birds, eggs and insects in the Kingdom, manufacturers of entomological apparatus'. With three premises, this looks to me like a family run business.
Were father and son competitors, perhaps certainly in an artistic sense? In the book, The International Exhibition of 1862, both were advertising their Taxidermy with adverts placed together. One James Gardner at 292 Oxford Street and 52 High Holbern London (the same as the store box label) and another at 426 Oxford Street, London, bird preserver to the Queen of England. According to one National Trust website, which has mounted birds by James Gardner senior, he had the Royal warrant from Queen Victoria, it seems that James Gardner Junior was perhaps included within this 'family' license.
The Gardners seem to have made a number of the cheaper collectors cabinets, which could be utilized for both butterflies and bird's eggs and looked liked ordinary furniture and they also made quality cabinets but the Gardners never merited a mention in either of the tomes, The Aurelian Legacy or The Aurelian's Fireside Companion, they certainly were not one of the established London cabinet makers such as Brady or Gurney.
By 1890, a James Gardner had moved from 426 Oxford Street to No 29 Oxford Street and the third generation James Gardner was still there and at 52 High Holbern Street ; three years later the business then closed. As a James Gardner was still at 52 High Holbern Street in 1917 and his grandfather advertised from there in 1856, this looks to have been the family home as well as a business center.
