ONE of the town’s oldest museum attractions, a preserved Maltese Terrier displayed in a custom Tunbridge Ware cabinet, is off to London to take part in a major exhibition of dog portraiture.
‘Minnie’, a long-haired white dog, was preserved even before the Tunbridge Wells Natural History and Philosophical Society founded its original collection in 1885. The collection covers social history, natural history, archaeology, fine and decorative arts.
Displayed within a custom-made glass-fronted Tunbridge Ware display cabinet, Minnie’ is accompanied by a card revealing that she died on April 16, 1883, aged nearly 12.
Lulu Terriers (as they were previously known) like Minnie were a very popular breed in Britain at the time, so this forms part of the social history aspect of the museum’s collection.
With the collection now held at The Amelia, curators tweeted last week: “Yesterday we said goodbye (for now!) to our much-loved Minnie, the famous #tunbridgewells mascot.
“Minnie is headed on tour to the @WallaceMuseum where she will be seen by new audiences,” they added.
‘Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney’ is on at The Wallace Collection (wallacecollection.org), near Bond Street, from March 29.
