4IO TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



DIVISION IV 

 CASES AND MOUNTS FOR ENCLOSING SPECIMENS 



The first " case " is the " box." It requires no description. 

 Its demerits speak for themselves, and all that can be said in 

 its favour is, that one will stack above another, like bricks, and 

 so save space. The next form is the " canted-corner " case, 

 which gives more glass and looks lighter. 



The case proper is one which has a light framework of 

 wood or metal, enclosing front and sides, and sometimes top, of 

 glass, and with a wooden back. In the Leicester Museum the 

 old " Bickley Collection " is contained in shallow " boxes," which 

 stack up as formally as the birds are stacked within. Many of 

 the new cases, however, have glass all around (four sides) and 

 on the top, whilst others have a tinted background, either of 

 wood covered with calico and paper, or of canvas backed by a 

 board. In some instances these backgrounds are tinted in dis- 

 temper, and in others in oil kept very flat ; some represent a 

 warm sky ranging from primrose through pink to greenish blue ; 

 others are simply grey, and one is painted as a seascape with 

 rocks and a wreck, kept low ki tone, and, although the all- 

 round glass cases look a little the lightest, and should give the 

 idea of greater space and atmosphere, yet it must be recollected 

 that in a museum, or, indeed, in any room, the objects on the 

 other side of the case from the spectator are plainly visible, be 

 they other groups, furniture, or other spectators, and therefore 

 the attention cannot be concentrated upon any particular group, 

 but is constantly distracted by other stationary or moving 

 objects. Then again, the object of the all-round case is de- 

 feated if placed back to back with another, and therefore the 

 idea would now seem to be what is being tried, or rather re- 

 tried, in the Leicester Museum, namely, cases with glass front, 



