Meet the Tipperary taxidermist who wants to save the art form in danger of dying
A crow dressed as a priest and dead cats in the freezer are among some of the macabre curiosities found in Tam Powell’s secluded home in Tipperary. Then again, 43-year-old Tam is one of the country's few taxidermists who are desperate to save what is in danger of becoming a dying art form.
Tam’s daughter Zelda says she too wants to be a taxidermist when she grows up, which might explain why she has overlooked the toys beside her to instead play with some animal bones.
While most parents are stepping on the lego left lying on the floor at the end of a long evening, Tam is more likely to be clearing up fossils.
Three-year-old Zelda’s melodic tones float through the house as she sings to a captive audience of stuffed hedgehogs, pine martens, kittens, birds among other creatures — an enchanting tune about bones which delights Tam.
“There’s Fr Ted,” Tam said, pointing to a stuffed crow on a miniature pulpit, carefully mounted to the wall of Tam’s upstairs hallway. “He looked so old and craggy. When I put this little cross round his neck it suited him to a tee. All he’s missing is a tiny bible.”
While only a small number of taxidermists operate in the country, the art form still fetches considerable sums at local auctions and is in demand.
“The stuffing and mounting of dead animal skins dates back to the 1600s. However, the popularity of taxidermy peaked in the Victorian era. The absence of television and foreign holidays at the time meant it was the closest many would come to a real life exotic creatures," says Thomas Keighery of Waterford-based RJ Keighery Antiques.
Though now rare, taxidermy is always extremely popular among bidders, he says. “Whenever we have taxidermy it always sells,” he said. “We regularly have enquiries about it but we can’t get it as often as we used to. If we get a piece of taxidermy it normally comes from a large country estate.
"The last large stag head we had took two of us to lift it. I think it made around €1,200. It ended up in a well-known stag and hen bar and has bras draped all over it now. You just never know where the pieces are going to end up.”
So when did Tam’s fascination with dead animals start?
The self-taught taxidermist said:
"When I was really young in primary school I tried to sneak home a dead bird. It was a lovely white bird. I couldn’t have told you what it was because I didn’t have that experience.
"It was just lying there. I was just about to take it to bring home when a little girl came along and began shouting 'dead bird, dead bird'. That was when the teachers came over to see what was happening. They took it away and when I came back to check in the bin for it later, the bird had gone.”
The experience only intensified Tam’s passion to preserve dead animals. “I used to love ambling along the old canals and walkways finding things. One time I found a dead cat that was half decomposed. I waited for its whole body to decompose and got its skull. I loved anywhere that was full of nature.”
While other kids got books and bikes, the Manchester native recalls receiving gifts of bones from siblings and relatives. “One time my brother went out with my cousin and they came back with some sheep bones and a skull for me in somebody’s coat.”
The freezer in their family home was the most sophisticated preservation method available to Tam at the time. “I used to like frogs so I sometimes brought tadpoles home to watch them develop.
"I had all these frogs. A bunch of them died on the carpet so I placed them on a butter dish and put them in the freezer. My dad didn’t like me putting things in the freezer so I’d often hide them.”
So how does Tam source materials now?
“People will ring me for commissions but also if they have found an animal they think I might have an interest in. I was in a walk in the Glen of Aherlow with my partner when I spotted a deceased feral goat. We used to go there a lot. I really wanted the skull and the horns so I came back the next day with a scalpel and chopped off its head.
"I put the head in a bin bag before throwing it in the back of my car. I was living in a flat at the time so I didn’t have anywhere big enough to store it. I brought it to my partner’s mother’s field.
"I used wood pellets, a few tyres and sawdust to let nature take its course. The sawdust prevented the insects from drowning as I needed them to speed up the decomposition process. Some people use bugs to clean them but you have to keep the colony alive which is difficult. I haven’t really got time for that as it’s like having more pets really.”
Tam first considered a career in taxidermy after moving to Ireland while the couple were still in their 20s.
"I wanted to have birds but I had so many cats that it wouldn’t have been possible. It occurred to me that through taxidermy I could have one of every bird and not have to feed them or care for them.
"I decided that taxidermy was something I really wanted to do so I ordered a manual from America. It was really difficult to find any books on taxidermy. The only one I could get was from the 80s. It was impossible to see what was in the photos because they were all in black and white but I managed to learn a few things.”
Tam’s creations take many forms.
“I don’t like waste so I’ll usually find something to do with them,” Tam said of the animal carcasses. “I have a chicken’s head in a frame because that was the only part of it that I could find. I came across this chicken on the road near my house but its body was hanging off. I was asking myself what I could possibly do with it when I remembered I had this old frame knocking about.
"I had a taxidermy conference coming up so I was bringing along anything I could to bulk up the collection. I don’t like waste so this worked out really well.”
Having secured various awards from the Guild of Taxidermists, Tam’s ambition is to one day work on a lion or similarly exotic creature.
“If he was from the zoo and people knew him when he was alive I would be able to do him more justice. I could approximate the look of an animal from when he was alive. It’s all about the creatures muscles and how they hold them but this can only be seen in a live animal.
"Once they die everything flops. Working on a lion or tiger is my ultimate dream.”
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