Mysore, Mar. 12 :
The legendary Taxidermist of Mysore, Edwin Joubert Van Ingen, passed away here early this morning at his residence located in Jalpuri close to Karnataka Police Academy. He was 101 and a bachelor.
He leaves behind a host of relatives in India and abroad, friends, well-wishers and staff.
Funeral will be held tomorrow at 10.30 am at St. Bartholomew’s Church Cemetery, next to St. Philomena’s High School on Bangalore-Mysore road after the mass at St. Bartholomew’s Church, next to suburban bus stand at 10 am.
The body has been kept at his residence near Karnataka Police Academy for the public to pay their last respects.
E.J.Van Ingen, along with his brothers Botha and De Wet, were trained by their father Eugene Van Ingen whose ancestors, as Dutch traders, had migrated to Mysore during 1600s and had lived here ever since.
Earlier, many old Mysoreans, who were interested in both game conservation and hunting, would make a ‘pilgrimage’ now and then to the firm named Van Ingen and Van Ingen to see the work of giving ‘second life’ to a variety of animals which had been shot elsewhere and dispatched to be cleaned and preserved and made as life-like as possible.
In its heyday, the factory had stuffed thousands of hunted wild animals including the tiger, leopard, deer, bison, elephant, lion, dogs and pigs etc., which are now in possession of the government, aristocrats, museums, clubs and the Mysore Palace.
One was able to see huge Cape Buffalo mounted on heavy wooden bases, Grizzly bears, African Elephants and their Asiatic cousins, lions, tigers, leopards and a variety of ungulates where anybody could walk in and be escorted by two Dachshunds to the main hall where the brothers would be bustling around throwing a friendly greeting to those who came.
With hunting being banned and strictly regulated in other parts of the world, Van Ingen and Van Ingen finally shut its doors in 1999. By then many of the trophies found their way to the great auction houses of Christies and Sotheby’s and into private collections in UK and USA.
Van Ingens were tiger specialists as one of the brothers had said in an interview.
After the death of his brothers and decline in business with the introduction of laws banning the shooting of animals in this country and the regulations and introduction of ‘hunting season’ in other countries, Edwin Joubert Van Ingen moved to a small portion of the old Van Ingen house.
Now, there are no tell-tale trophies on the walls or even anywhere in the house.
Edwin Joubert Van Ingen had revealed in an interview to Dr. Pat Morristhe, a British writer for his book on ‘Big Game and Conservation’, that he had been one of the prisoners who had helped build the bridge on the River Kwai (Thailand).
With his death, Mysore has lost a legendary Taxidermist and a lover of animals.
source: http://www.StarofMysore.com /Home> General News /March 12th, 2013