Deyrolle, a Paris (France) shop specialized in natural history publications, old-school educational charts, taxidermy, entomology, minerals, rocks, fossils, botanical specimens, shells, microscopic specimens and microscopes, founded by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle in 1831 and moved to its current address on rue de Bac in 1888.

I visited the place in 1999, and asked the owner where they get the animals. He told me they come from zoos and circuses, where they died from old age or sickness.

Almost all the animals are for sale: lion (9,950 euros), polar bear (13,500 euros), zebra (21,000 euros), crocodile (14,000 euros), tiger lily (19,000 euros) — you can also rent them…

It’s Saturday afternoon and Deyrolle is crowded with fathers and flocks of well-behaved small chidren. Hand in hand, they survey the stuffed animals as if they were exhibits at a museum. And in a way, this strangely wonderful taxidermist is a museum, except that nearly everything is for sale.

The trio of spacious, high-ceilinged rooms on the first floor are a cabinet of curiosities, a collector’s dream—if at heart you’re the sort of person who centuries ago might have met ships returning from Africa or the Far East, eager to snare a rare butterfly or shell or, maybe a zebra. (…) Everything you need to start your own natural history collection is here: ancient fossils, chunks of amethyst, coral from the South Seas, greenish iridescent beetles, even an African water buffalo or a crocodile from the Nile. (I’m obliged to report that only the elephant on the website is made of resin.)

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On friday February 1st, a blaze erupted at the first floor of the store, destroying 100% of the entomological collections (butterflies, insects, spiders…), and 80% of the stuffed animals.

photos { nswd | Deyrolle | pbase | thanks Gerald }

READ MORE >> animals, insects, Taxidermy, incidents | February 12th, 2008