An early Australian platypus rug, 19th century

For the contemporary, environmentalist sensibility, rugs made from the skins of indigenous fauna are tragic, pathetic objects.  But in the 19^th century, the then plentiful possums, koalas and even thylacines were widely regarded as fair game for commercial exploitation, or simply as vermin.  Platypus were actively hunted by pastoralists not only for their skins, but because their river-edge burrows were seen as a risk to stock, a hazard for watering sheep and cattle.
Reinforcing this destructive rationale, the pelts of the platypus were particularly highly valued as materials for lap or knee rugs to be worn when travelling in open carts or sulkies; the aquatic animal’s dense (between 2,500 and 3,000 hairs per square centimetre), velvety fur providing both warmth and waterproofing.  A platypus skin rug was amongst the exhibits sent from New South Wales to the 1862 London International Exhibition of Agricultural and Industrial Products, and they remained in production until State-based protection laws were enacted in the early 20^th century.  Presumably once not uncommon, few rugs have survived, (1) though some examples are held in public collections. (2)
The present object is a late 19^th century example.  It is made of 32 individual skins, with a red flannel backing, scalloped at the edges and decorated with a simple, folk-art embroidery pattern.  It was formerly owned by Ida Fitzgerald Grimley (1877-1966), an Australian woman who left Melbourne in 1897 to return to her ancestral Ireland.  She married in Tipperary in 1906; according to family tradition she either brought the rug with her from the colonies or received it as a wedding present.
Rare, strange and strangely beautiful, the rug is an artefact of very considerable interest, both as a substantial suite of zoological specimens and as a socio-historical relic of colonial mentality and domestic crafts.
Dr David Hansen
(1) As late as 1940 it was believed that fewer than 12 rugs existed.  See ‘Platypus Skin Rug: Offered for War Fund’, The Canberra Times, Canberra, 4 July 1940, p. 5
(2) Tasmania, circa 1850, Australian Museum, Sydney; New South Wales, circa 1880-1930, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. (The Powerhouse also holds a platypus skin cape, circa 1930 – 1950)