Hi,
I had a great trip in RSA last year and just saw the 4 cleaned skulls received from Spirit of Africa Taxidermy in Howick, KwaZulu Natal.

www.soataxidermy.co.za

I have never been more dissapointed with a taxidermist's work in my life! The skulls were all over-boiled and as you can see the wildebeest has gouges where it has been burned by direct heat!! I don't know if all clients are treated like this, or only the nickel and dime people, but this is ridiculous!










I know there is little I can do about it now, but hopefully this will prevent someone making the same mistake I did!

I went and collected the skulls myself. Unfortunately they were already packed so I couldn't give Mr. Psaila my opinion of his work (if he even did this himself). Clearly the attention he gives to shoulder mounts and big dollar clients is very different!
Unfortunately for me, this has totally ruined my Rowland Ward blue wildebeest and really damaged the 50 inch kudu....

Any advice on how to restore my trophies would be very gratefully received.
Regards,

Gabriel Boghossian

Pizza boxes here but if they aren't to bad a good taxidermist can do wonders repairing and restoring horns. As a American taxidermist for over 30 years I have PERSONALLY seen very little to no "great" quailty taxidermy recieved from African taxidermists. I have seen it in thier Safari Club booths, and the like but not from clients. I have been in homes of African taxidermy clients who thought the work they recieved was great but I could only personally sigh. It is a art craft form and art is in the eye of the beholder. I think that there is no excuse for over boiling, esp. then to say nothing, charge you and send it to you. Thats a pure rip off from any taxidermist no matter where they are from.

Its sickening to see your trophies messed up like that. When you boil skulls its just a matter of time and checking them regularly.They must have went on lunch break when they boiled them.

I have repaired over boiled skulls and horns before and have been very successfull at it. I can work on them for you if you would like. You may can find someone that will take there time and repair them right.

sculptor you are correct. Some of the work I have seen done in SA has been very bad yet the clients seemed happy so the only thing I could do was keep my mouth shut lol. Being a taxidermist some of the bad things I see on there mounts stand out like a sore thumb

Best wishes
Steve

I know what you guys mean....but I thought it was very difficult to mess up a skull mount! For goodness sake, all they had to do was take off all the meat and dry the skull, no bleaching or anything!

The nose bones on both impala and reedbuck are loose since all the cartilage has been boiled off.

I cannot believe the taxidermist handed me the box personally, charged 300 euros and expected me to bring him more trophies!

I have a nyala being shoulder mounted and a hartebeest being skull mounted this year. Fingers crossed I will not be dissapointed by another taxidermist, every time I see these skulls it pisses me off! The amount of effort and expense you put into each hunt is reduced to one or two photos and a skull mount. Thanks to Mr. Psaila this will be a bitter memory.

The taxidermist may or may not be the only one to blame for this. The skinners that work for the safari company who prepare the trophies could have over boiled the skulls just as easily. The taxidermist may have received them in poor condition and then just cut the skulls. Just a thought. The taxidermist will dip and cut the skulls but they are usually boiled and free of all meat before they ever get them.

This was not the case here as the skinned and salted skulls were dropped off with the taxidermist immediately after the hunt.