A papier-mâché model of a 'Feejee mermaid'

A papier-mâché model of a 'Feejee mermaid', with a monkey head, a pair of bird legs and talons and a fish body, 51.5cm long, on an ebonized plinth mounted in a glazed parcel-gilt and ebonized case, titled 'THE FEEJEE MERMAID', with a facsimile newspaper cutting.

The 'Feejee Mermaid' was an example of a traditional art form perfected by Japanese and East Indies fishermen. They made faux mermaids by sewing the head of a monkey onto a fish body. In 1842 an example was at the centre of a famous sideshow hoax devised by P. T. Barnum and Levi Lyman.