A Fine Trio of c.1890 Taxidermy Terrapins

SOLD
Origin: Asian
Period: Late Nineteenth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1890-1900
Graduating Lengths: 8 inches, 6.75 inches, 5.5 inches

Presenting a fine trio of graduating terrapins, mother, father and son, shown in the midst of an advance toward a generously filled ceramic basin full of lettuce leaves, survive from the late Victorian period.

Reasons for families of three:

1) An awful lot of fairy tales and songs focus on groups of three, for example; Three Blind Mice, Three Little Pigs and Three Billy Goats Gruff.

2) A family of three slips pretty unnoticed through the world. If you have two or more, you have a brood, with its attendant noise and unpredictability. Three means they are not afraid to go to restaurants, or the library, or movies.

3) Listening to the song “Three is a Magic Number” invariably makes the custodian of this trio cry when they get to the part “A man and a woman had a little baby…yes, they did…there were three in the family…and that’s a magic number.”.

4) They look super on mantelpiece, shelf or a chest.

Important, that last point. This is one happy family.
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