When the Wild God Enters the Room
The Twelve-Point Wild Red Stag | Shropshire
His wild presence seems to fill a room, even long after his living body has returned to the earth.
This is a magnificent wild red stag, pictured here with my fallow deer skull for size.
With His extraordinary twelve-point crown of dark deeply textured antler, he carries something of the ancient wild god. The great stag whose image has moved through our mythology, folklore and ancestral imagination for thousands of years.
Red stags aredeeply mythological. Across the old stories of these lands, the stag moves at the edges of the known world. A creature of the wildwood, of sovereignty, of thresholds and transformation. His antlers reaching towards the heavens, his hooves firmly upon the earth.
His crown speaks of the extraordinary cycles of a deer's life. Antlers grown from living bone, shaped by the seasons, by nourishment, by the demands of the rut. Carried through the turning year before being surrendered to the earth, only for another crown to begin its slow emergence.
And yet, before we made him a god, he was a deer. A wild being with a life entirely his own.
He knew the weather upon his skin, the cold of winter, the warmth of the sun, the scent of other deer moving through the landscape. He knew the urgency of the rut, the quiet of the woodland, the instinctive intelligence of a body belonging entirely to the wild.
He did not exist to become our symbol, our teacher or our mythology.
He was here to be a deer. And to me that is where the deepest sacredness lies. Not in what we imagine him to represent, but in the extraordinary fact of his existence.
His Story
This magnificent twelve-point red stag came into my care from the wild landscapes of Shropshire.
His skull has been carefully tended back to bone, preserving the beautiful natural ivory of the skull and the rich, dark character of his antlers.
I am also honoured to hold his hide, which is currently being carefully prepared as a hair-on skin.
To know this one in life and death, to hold both his hide and his bone is an intimacy I can never explain. Two parts of one being, each carrying a different expression of his life.
His hide will become available separately once the preparation is complete.
For me, this work has never simply been about preserving beautiful natural objects. It has always and will always be about relationship, remembrance and reciprocity and about recognising the individual life that existed before they came into my hands.
It's about allowing the deer to remain a deer, even in death.
Details
Species: Wild Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)
Origin: Shropshire, England
Antlers: Twelve-point crown
Skull length: 16 inches (approximately 41 cm)
Maximum antler spread: 25 inches (approximately 64 cm)
Upper antler tip spread: 22 inches (approximately 56 cm)
Antler length: 26 inches (approximately 66 cm)
Finish: Naturally coloured antlers with carefully prepared ivory-toned bone
Preparation: Personally and carefully tended by hand
This is a natural, individual skull, carrying the unique characteristics, markings and imperfections of the animal himself.
A magnificent presence for a home, a place of remembrance, or a space dedicated to the beauty and mystery of the more-than-human world.
When the wild god enters the room, may we remember the deer who came before him.
Price: £625
This listing is for the skull and antlers only. His hair-on hide is being prepared and will be offered separately when complete. Please contact me to discuss collection or suitable delivery arrangements.
When the Wild God Enters the Room
The Twelve-Point Wild Red Stag | Shropshire
His wild presence seems to fill a room, even long after his living body has returned to the earth.
This is a magnificent wild red stag, pictured here with my fallow deer skull for size.
With His extraordinary twelve-point crown of dark deeply textured antler, he carries something of the ancient wild god. The great stag whose image has moved through our mythology, folklore and ancestral imagination for thousands of years.
Red stags aredeeply mythological. Across the old stories of these lands, the stag moves at the edges of the known world. A creature of the wildwood, of sovereignty, of thresholds and transformation. His antlers reaching towards the heavens, his hooves firmly upon the earth.
His crown speaks of the extraordinary cycles of a deer's life. Antlers grown from living bone, shaped by the seasons, by nourishment, by the demands of the rut. Carried through the turning year before being surrendered to the earth, only for another crown to begin its slow emergence.
And yet, before we made him a god, he was a deer. A wild being with a life entirely his own.
He knew the weather upon his skin, the cold of winter, the warmth of the sun, the scent of other deer moving through the landscape. He knew the urgency of the rut, the quiet of the woodland, the instinctive intelligence of a body belonging entirely to the wild.
He did not exist to become our symbol, our teacher or our mythology.
He was here to be a deer. And to me that is where the deepest sacredness lies. Not in what we imagine him to represent, but in the extraordinary fact of his existence.
His Story
This magnificent twelve-point red stag came into my care from the wild landscapes of Shropshire.
His skull has been carefully tended back to bone, preserving the beautiful natural ivory of the skull and the rich, dark character of his antlers.
I am also honoured to hold his hide, which is currently being carefully prepared as a hair-on skin.
To know this one in life and death, to hold both his hide and his bone is an intimacy I can never explain. Two parts of one being, each carrying a different expression of his life.
His hide will become available separately once the preparation is complete.
For me, this work has never simply been about preserving beautiful natural objects. It has always and will always be about relationship, remembrance and reciprocity and about recognising the individual life that existed before they came into my hands.
It's about allowing the deer to remain a deer, even in death.
Details
Species: Wild Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)
Origin: Shropshire, England
Antlers: Twelve-point crown
Skull length: 16 inches (approximately 41 cm)
Maximum antler spread: 25 inches (approximately 64 cm)
Upper antler tip spread: 22 inches (approximately 56 cm)
Antler length: 26 inches (approximately 66 cm)
Finish: Naturally coloured antlers with carefully prepared ivory-toned bone
Preparation: Personally and carefully tended by hand
This is a natural, individual skull, carrying the unique characteristics, markings and imperfections of the animal himself.
A magnificent presence for a home, a place of remembrance, or a space dedicated to the beauty and mystery of the more-than-human world.
When the wild god enters the room, may we remember the deer who came before him.
Price: £625
This listing is for the skull and antlers only. His hair-on hide is being prepared and will be offered separately when complete. Please contact me to discuss collection or suitable delivery arrangements.
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