The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's Obsession with Wombats

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, particularly Dante Gabriel Rossetti, developed a notable fascination with wombats in the mid-19th century. Rossetti purchased his first pet wombat in September 1869 from Charles Jamrach, a leading exotic animal dealer in London. He named the wombat 'Top,' a reference to his friend William Morris's nickname 'Topsy.' The wombat died on November 6, 1869, and Rossetti had it stuffed and displayed in his front hall. The obsession began during the 1857 Oxford Union commission, where Rossetti and his assistants, including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, drew wombats on the whitewash. Rossetti's menagerie at Tudor House included various exotic animals, and his supplier Jamrach was a notable figure who once rescued a boy from a Bengal tiger. Georgiana Burne-Jones, wife of Edward, was an artist and political activist who served on the Rottingdean parish council and opposed the Boer War.