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THE VERREAUX BROTHERS OF FRANCE
Jules Pierre, Jean Baptiste Edouard and Alexis Verreaux were
the sons of the famous Parisian taxidermist Jacques Philippe
Verreaux - founder of the famous Parisian taxidermy emporium,
Maison E. Verreaux in 1800.
A t number 6 boulevard Montmartre, France, Maison Verreaux
quickly gained a sound reputation throughout Europe in the
field of taxidermy and as an establishment active in the dealing
of rare and unusual natural history specimens from around
the world. Their list of clients ranged from princes to public
museums and at a later stage of life, Edouard was to share
an important period of ornithological discoveries with his
English counterpart, John Gould.
Born in 1807, Jules Verreaux showed an exceptional aptitude
towards the field of taxidermy. At the early age of 12 and
in the company of his uncle, Pierre-Antoine Delalande, Jules
ventured to South Africa and the Cape in 1818. Their most
significant discovery was that of a 75 ft long whale washed
up on the beach at False Bay. Jean and his uncle remained
in South Africa for around 2 years and when they returned
in 1821, bought back with them a staggering 131,405 specimens,
most of which were plants. Other items included 288 mammals,
2,205 birds, 322 reptiles, 265 fish, 3,875 shellfish, human
skulls of various African native tribes as well as nearly
2 dozen skeletons unearthed from an old Cape Town cemetery
and the Grahamstown battlefield of 1819.
In 1825, Jules returned to Africa to resume collecting specimens.
Finding there was more work there than he could handle, Jules
sent for his younger brother Edouard in 1830 so that he may
double the size of the collections.
Edouard brought the material back to Paris in 1832 (?), but
later that same year returned to South Africa to rejoin Jules,
this time accompanied by the third and youngest of the brothers,
Alexis.
Amongst the material brought back from Africa was the preserved
body of an African
native, presumed one of the Bathlhaping people which inhabited
the confluence of the Orange and Vaal Rivers, possibly
in the village of Kgathlane. A young man of approximately
27 years of age who had died around 1830, his body was stolen
by the Verreaux brothers, stuffed in the traditional methods
of preservation and subsequently shipped to France along with
an enormity of material collected by the two brothers.
A press report from the "Le Constitutionnel"
dated 15th November1831, describes the event of the return
of the Verreaux brothers back to Paris, praising the endurance,
perseverance and triumphs of the" young compatriots"
of France during their explorations of Southern Africa. The
report goes on to say:
But their greatest curiosity is an individual of the nation
of the Betjouanas. This man is preserved by the means by which
naturalists prepare their specimens and reconstitute their
form, and, so to speak, their inert life. He is of small stature,
black of skin, his head covered by short woolly and curly
hair, armed with arrows and a lance, clothes in an antelope
skin, (with a bag ?) made of bush pig, full of small glass
beads,seeds and of small bones
The brothers displayed the body in their shop in Paris as
the 'Bechuana", that is a Tswana person from the region
of South Africa/Botswana, until the body was purchased by
a Spanish naturalist by the name of Frencesc Darder, who exhibited
the native at the 1888 Barcelona World Exhibition. Upon Darders
death, the body along with the rest of his natural history
collection went to a new museum named after the Spanish collector
in Banyoles. Here the body became popularly known as "El
Negro" because it had been painted black, and became
a symbol of Spanish exploitation and enslavement of black
Africans.
After much resistance from the Franscesc Darder Museum
of Natural History in Banyoles Spain, the body of El Negro
was finally repatriated back to Africa and re-buried in Gaborone,
the capital of Botswana on October 5,2000.
Several significant collections were sent back to Paris but
the final collection was lost in a shipwreck off La Rochelle
in 1838. Jules returned to the family business in 1838 where
he stayed under its employ until 1842.
The brothers frequently travelled abroad in search of specimens,
both on business commission and for the purpose of stocking
the shop in Paris.
The name and reputation of Maison Verreaux spread across the
world and soon it was supplying specimens in America, South
Africa and elsewhere throughout Europe. Inspired by the success
of John Gould in the Antipodes, Jules left France for Australia
in 1842 where he spent the next 5 years collecting specimens
for the Museum des Plantes. It is recorded that Jules Verreaux
collected some 11,500 natural history specimens during his
visit to Australia..
It was to be the last of the Verreaux’s expeditions
and when Jules returned to France, he continued working in
Maison Verreaux until the business was dissolved in 1855.
In compiling the material for his works the, Birds of Australia,
John Gould had amassed one of the most important and complete
collections of avifauna specimens for any one single country.
With in excess of 1800 skins ( hundreds of which were type
specimens) representing not less than 600 species of birds
and coupled with Goulds oology collection of some 1000 specimens
of nearly 300 species, it was Goulds dearest wish that this
Australian collection be acquired by the British National
Museum.
In a letter dated April 9th, 1847, Gould literally begged
the British Museum to purchase the collection in its entirety
for the meager sum of 1000 pounds He in turn was met with
a less than enthusiastic response to his wishes by the trustees
to see a final resting place for this important collection
in the museum of his country. Gould must have been bitterly
disappointed at the museum's decision to decline his offer
and a month later on May 8th, he wrote to Edward Wilson of
Pembrokshire, offering him his Australian Bird collection
for 800 pounds, or for 1000 pounds to include the eggs.
The entire collection of 1858 specimens was purchased by Edward
Wilson, who subsequently entrusted the precious Australian
bird skins to Maison Verreaux in Paris for mounting on behalf
of his millionaire brother Thomas B. Wilson for ultimate presentation
to the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia USA.
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