item details
William Yandle; records creator; 21 September 1872
Overview
This receipt, dated 21 September 1872, is for the making of a kiwi muff and tippet at one pound, nineteen shillings and nine pence. The receipt is made out to Mr Kirk and is signed W J Yandle.
Correspondance in Te Papa's museum records, reveal this receipt relates to a commission from James Hector, Director of the Colonial Museum.
In July 1872 James Hector sent five kiwi skins to his colleague Thomas Kirk, secretary and curator at the Auckland Institute and Museum. Kirk, in turn, delivered them to Jane Yandle (née Turle, 1843–1915), the city’s only professional taxidermist and furrier, to be transformed into a matching muff and tippet.
Although Kirk described Mrs Yandle as ‘very dilatory as a rule’, he advised Hector that she would have the muff and tippet completed within the week.
Ten days later, he wrote to Hector to let him know that the accessories were on their way, and that while the job came to one pound nineteen shillings and nine pence, he had paid Mrs Yandle two pounds to cover postage. Of the results he commented, ‘She had some trouble getting the trimmings to match and appears to have made a fair job as far as my judgement goes, but the muff is rather too stiff'. Jane YandleJane Yandle emigrated from England, arriving in Auckland on the Percy
in December 1865 with her husband of three years, William Yandle, who was a butcher, and their baby daughter. The couple subsequently established a taxidermy business in the central city under William’s name, ‘WJ Yandle’. Mrs Yandle's mother Mary Turle (1820–1866), is recorded as working as a milliner and 'bird stuffer' in Taunton, Somerset, in the 1860s. Mrs Yandle not only worked on specimens, but also served the fashion trade, making fur and feather trimmings to order and offering a fur and feather cleaning service.