limewood, a woodcock, partridge and snipe hanging by their feet from two intertwined branches, the trophy mounted in a glass case with solid back and gilded mouldings; carved by Thomas Wallis of Louth, English, dated 1853

Naturalistically carved to represent a branch with two nails and projecting twigs intertwined with a narrow branch bearing twigs and clusters of hazelnuts and a single leaf. From the larger branch a woodcock and a partridge hang by their feet. A snipe is suspended from another twig. This carved naturalistic trophy is set on the back of the case against a background of dark red plush. The top of the case is solid and also covered in dark red plush while the bottom has a glazed rectangular aperture round which is more red plush. The case has gilded moulding at the top, bottom and sides and a rounded gilt upright at the four corners.

Bequeathed by Col. J. Ashton

This carving of game birds in a case dated 1853 was bequeathed to the Museum by Colonel J. Ashton in 1977. It may be the carving mentioned by Wallis in his Autobiography of Thomas Wilkinson Wallis, 1899, p. 117. In 1853 Wallis visited Manchester where he had letters of introduction to several leading men. He wrote 'I felt profoundly sick of the duties I had undertaken, but I found a purchaser, Thos. Ashton. Esq., for the only work I had on sale - a group of game (3 birds). On being informed of its price he said:"I will give you seventy guineas for that; I shall be here again shortly when I will pay you for it." ' The purchaser of Wallis's carving of game birds in 1853 may have been Thomas Ashton, local philanthropist, cotton manufacturer, and owner of the Flowery Fields mill complex in Manchester.

Thomas Wilkinson Wallis (1822-1903) was apprenticed as a wood carver in Hull and established his carving business in Louth in 1843. He specialised in carving trophies of dead birds, particularly game birds, fruit, flowers and foliage in lime, from a clay model. Wallis was awarded a silver medal for wood carving by the Royal Society of Arts in 1850, and a Prize medal for his exhibits of wood carving in Class XXX, Sculpture, Models, and Plastic Art, No. 89, at the Great Exhibition of 1851. His carvings exhibited in 1851 included a group of three dead game birds, partridge, woodcock and snipe, as well as a golden plover with an ivy branch, and two carvings of flowers and fruit. Louth Museum has two examples of his work, a heron with bulrush and ivy of 1853, and the clay model for this carving, and a brace of partridges with ivy of 1856.

According to his Autobiography,Wallis's first carving of three game birds was executed between December 1848 and April 1850 for one of his earliest patrons, George Tomline of Riby Grove, Grimsby. He also executed carvings of three game birds for other patrons.

W.46-1977