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Mirror
Rampendahl, H. F. C. - Enlarge image
Mirror
- Place of origin:
Hamburg, Germany (possibly, made)
- Date:
ca. 1860 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Rampendahl, H. F. C. (possibly, designer and maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Two varieties of deer antlers, boar tusks and goat horns on a base of carved wood
- Museum number:
W.4-1970
- Gallery location:
In store
Although this mirror is set on a base of carved wood, it is largely made up of stag horns from two different species of deer, arranged with goat horns and boar tusks. Such furniture, which may seem rather gruesome to modern taste, was extremely fashionable in the middle of the 19th century, but it must always have been expensive and thus confined to a small market. Victorians were quite unworried about the conservation of natural species and readily used feathers for their hats and stuffed birds and animals for interior decoration, with animal-skin rugs on the floors. This kind of furniture was considered suitable for hunting lodges, where the day might be passed in stalking and shooting the kind of animals from which such furnishings were made. Antler and horn furniture was available throughout northern Europe and in North America but it seems to have been particularly popular in the German states. The best-known manufacturer, who exhibited at several of the international exhibitions, was H.F.C. Rampendahl of Hamburg.
