George
Jamieson was born in Edinburgh. Today he is one of Scotland's
leading taxidermists, and his work is regularly sent to patrons in France,
Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the USA, Australia and throughout
the United Kingdom.
In his own words, 'Through an interest in birdwatching,
painting and sketching, at the age of ten I started to collect stuffed birds -
being given a Golden Eagle for passing my 11+ exam.
'Although having no desire to go hunting or shooting, I would find many dead
specimens whilst out birdwatching, especially seabirds at Aberlady Bay where I
would go most Saturdays. At 14, I got a book from the library (dated 1890) and
decided to try and mount the specimens myself as there was no local taxidermist,
nor could I afford to have them mounted. The Royal Scottish Museum (now called
Royal Museum of Scotland) then advised me on my work.
'For 4 years whilst at school I did taxidermy in the evenings and at weekends
and I also did some painting.
'My desire to do taxidermy was to create the illusion of life using the original
animal or bird skins and modelled in a lifelike manner. This appeared to me to
be the most honest type of wildlife art.
'While at University in Aberdeen, I did taxidermy one day a week in the Zoology
Department, both learning from and teaching the staff there. After
leaving University, I started doing taxidermy full-time. In 1974, the owner of Grantully Castle asked me to hold an exhibition of taxidermy and pictures at the
Castle for two weeks. This was followed by an exhibition at Jenners, the
Edinburgh store, the McEwen Galleries, Braemar, and Gleneagles Hotel.
'In 1983, 1 was the first Scottish commercial taxidermist to gain professional
membership of the Guild of Taxidermists. I am also registered with the
Department of the Environment and have a licence to sell birds, special licences
are available for big cats. This means keeping records of all specimens, strict
laws govern what can and cannot be mounted, dependent on the cause of the
specimens death e.g. an owl can only be mounted if it has been a road casualty,
not if it has been shot.
'Customers have included Saatchi & Saatchi, the Arab Emirates, many
famous Scottish Estates, Scottish museums, Heritage Centres, BBC, STV, many
advertising agencies and professional advertising photographers.
'I was commissioned to prepare the limited edition casts of the most famous fish
in Scotland - Miss Ballantyne's British Record Salmon of 64lbs caught in 1922.'
The work covers British birds, mammals and fish and the occasional zoo animals,
e.g. tiger, leopard etc.
