FORGET the bunnies and the bilbies; the Easter gift for that friend who has everything could just as easily be a big stuffed cat.
Not the fluffy toy variety, mind.
The big-ticket item at a Sydney auction this week was a genuine tiger, which sold for a tidy $5750.
Lot 1603 was one of a series of creatures great and small (and dead) that went under the hammer on Thursday, which Shauna Farren-Price of Lawsons said was one of the auction house's most popular collections of recent months.
"The online catalogue (had) several thousand clicks a day," she told AAP.
The collection included fossils, museum models and other natural history paraphernalia, but taxidermy was the big drawcard, Ms Farren-Price said.
She said a couple of publicans had come along on Thursday, competing with serious taxidermy collectors to scoop up preserved beasts for their bars.
Also in the crowd were curious shoppers, businessmen and parents who came to pore over a collection that included a stuffed bear, an ex-wombat and a mounted mountain goat.
"They're quirky Easter presents," she said.
"If you're allergic to chocolate, why not have a moose head, I guess ... and nothing beats a dinosaur tooth for an eight-year-old."
Ms Farren-Price said that with the exception of a bargain here and there - a stuffed chook went for $60, for instance - taxidermy wasn't known for entry-level pricing.
She said that with strict restrictions on what can be imported into Australia, stuffed animals were increasingly hard to come by and therefore increasingly valuable.
She added that taxidermy tastes had changed over the years.
In centuries past, taxidermists took to propping their creations into fighting poses.
"The Victorians were very fond of doing that, and if you look up close they often used red paint around the mouth (like) blood," Ms Farren-Price said.
The animals on offer at Lawsons this week were "almost cute" in comparison, she quipped.
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