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deyrolle emporium of dead beasts Inside Deyrolle, part taxidermy shop, part museum, in Paris, shortly after the fire in February. When a fire ripped through Deyrolle, the beloved taxidermy establishment here, early one morning last February, it was as if a dagger had been plunged... more
Reviewed by Hapax Nov 17 2008, 03:45am ( 1 review ) • nytimes.com
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Rated by Hapax on Nov 17 2008, 3:45am
deyrolle emporium of dead beasts Inside Deyrolle, part taxidermy shop, part museum, in Paris, shortly after the fire in February. When a fire ripped through Deyrolle, the beloved taxidermy establishment here, early one morning last February, it was as if a dagger had been plunged into the heart of Paris. Deyrolle has always been more than a shop on the classy Rue du Bac. Founded 177 years ago by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, a well-known entomologist, Deyrolle has been a natural history emporium with the look and feel of a museum, except that just about everything was for sale. Deyrolle's stuffed menagerie -- from black crows to big-game animals -- its cases of butterflies and beetles, its signature pedagogic posters and century-old prints have made it a place of pilgrimage. . . . Ninety percent of the shop's stock, including most of the animals, a celebrated fossil collection, an antique skeleton of a Nile perch and a 19th-century diorama of more than 100 birds, was lost. The dark-wood cabinets that housed birds, butterflies and beetles went up in flames. . . . "Deyrolle was the place in Paris you'd first come as a child, then later bring your friends, then your fiancée, then your own children and your grandchildren," Mr. de Broglie said. "How could people close their eyes and let it disappear? It would have been impossible.". . . One French woman donated 50 boxes of butterflies. A Frenchman gave back the head of a bull he had bought at Deyrolle a few months before. Artists and photographers who had drawn inspiration from one of the most celebrated taxidermy sites in the world donated their works. Christie's Europe offered to sell those items as a fund-raising auction, waiving its commission along the way. Since the fire, Mr. de Broglie has reopened some of the rooms in the multistoried, 4,300-square-foot space. The back corridors still smell of smoke, but new animals are slowly moving in: a giraffe, a lion, an ostrich, a camel, a zebra, a tiger, a peacock, among many others. . . .
