Lion of Gripsholm Castle

The Lion of Gripsholm Castle is a notable example of bad taxidermy located in Gripsholm Castle, Sweden. The Lion is badly stuffed and is considered to have a comically deformed face.[1]

In 1731, the dey of Algiers presented King Frederick I of Sweden with a lion, one of the first lions in Scandinavia.[2] When alive, the lion was kept in a cage near Junibacken. When the lion died, it was stuffed and mounted; however, the taxidermist and the museum-keepers had never actually seen a lion before, and did not know how they were supposed to look.[3] The taxidermist mostly based the reconstruction off of historic artwork of lions. As a result, the resulting mount was especially anatomically inaccurate, most apparent in its face.

In the 21st century, the badly-stuffed lion has been widely mocked.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

References
  1. "Hilariously Bad Corpse Taxidermy". Buzzfeed. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  2. "Le lion empaillé de Gripsholm". La Boite Verte. 28 March 2011. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  3. "The Greatest Castles in Sweden: Uncovering Magical Swedish Castles". Exploring Castles. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  4. "Bad taxidermy: The lion at the castle of Gripsholm". Doobybrain. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. "The lion of Gripsholm's castle". Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  6. "The stuffed lion of Gripsholm's Castle". Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  7. "18th Century Taxidermy Unkind to Noble Lion". 11 April 2011. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  8. "The Lion of Gripsholm Castle". Mentalfloss. 12 April 2011. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  9. "Lejonet på Gripsholms Slott". Facebook. Archived from the original on 17 July 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2014.


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