"Top Hat Taxidermy is the best value taxidermy company around. David was a consummate professional and he will always be our first call for taxidermy in the future!" - Tiger Aspect Productions (makers of the Vicar of Dibley and other popular TV programmes)

"Awesome taxidermy work! Great packaging and super fast delivery!" - Tiziana Ruggi, a keen collector from Switzerland.

"As an animal artist, I'm always on the look out for first class taxidermy and I believe I've found the best in David and Top Hat. The quality of the work is amazing and the service is friendly and super efficient." - Mark Amos, artist.

Taxidermy is a general term describing the many methods of reproducing a life-like three-dimensional representation of an animal for permanent display. The actual skin (including the fur, feathers or scales) of the specimen is preserved and mounted over an artificial armature. The word "taxidermy" is derived from two ancient Greek words; taxis, meaning movement; and derma, meaning skin. Therefore, loosely translated, taxidermy means the movement of skin. This is a fairly appropriate definition as many taxidermy procedures involve removing the natural skin from the specimen, replacing this skin over an artificial body, and adjusting the skin until it appears lifelike.

Taxidermy is a very misunderstood profession. Many people believe that it depends on the killing of animals. This was true in days gone by when the only way to identify certain species was to kill and preserve them.

These days many specimens are found at the roadside. Road traffic is the largest cause of death to wildlife in the U.K. Consultants to the British Trust for Ornithology estimate that 104 million animals are killed by Road traffic and rail accidents and 90 million are killed by the domestic cat. A large percentage are found with little damage. The use of these specimens presents no threat to our wildlife. There are lots of other reasons animals are killed, like pollution, power cables and thousands of birds killed each year by accidentally flying into a window.

Top Hat Taxidermy only sells modern taxidermy items if they come with the appropriate evidence to back up their origin.

Unlike alot of collectable items, taxidermy is hand made and impossible to mass produce. It is a very specialist item that does not go in and out of fashion and the value of your taxidermy will increase with inflation.