I’m a beginner collector and I’m thinking of purchasing this wolf pelt (harvested legally and tagged by Alaska game & fish of course.) I’m just in love with the beautiful face. However since I don’t have a trained eye I’m wondering if there are any big flaws that i don’t notice!
What can and can’t I do with this pelt? Can you tell if it was prepared for anything specific just based off of how it looks? Anything I should know about the “style” it was prepared in? Thank you!
It was cut for a rug style mount so they probably cut off some of the belly and by the looks of it also the genitals/anus. The tan looks very good, it also looks like they split the lips, eyes and nose at least to some degree. Not sure about the ears but they may also be good. Sometimes the main big pawpads are removed/missing but I can't tell from the pics.
I would probably use it as a wallhanger or make a rug. I find rugcuts like that hard to use on fullmounts (and you may not be able to do a fullmount because of missing pieces). You will probably be able to mount the head at least if you want to.
Very helpful thanks! Is 1200 a fair price? I’m not stingy about paying for good art, I just genuinely don’t know what a “good” price for a wolf is. I only ask because ive also looked at websites like hide and fur and fur and hide and they vary a lot. Anywhere from 600-1500 for pelts that are all the same “category” as far as I can tell (with feet, similar size etc)
For some context, the seller is also the one who harvested it and had it prepared by a taxidermist so that may play into the price as well if they paid themselves to have it tanned.
It looks nice. I am in germany but I also would probably pay about 800-1500€ for a wolf no problem so it seems fair. I'm not from the region of course but someone probably paid to shot that wolf, the tanning alone is usually 200+ for a big pelt like that so there are some costs that they are trying to cover with the sale of it probably.
I would probably ask about the paw pads and if the genitals are still there because it would probably make or break it for me personally. I like complete pelts.