What do Damien Hirst, Harry Hill and David Bailey all have in common? Apparently they all own works by Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter and are loaning them to the pop-up Museum of Everything in Primrose Hill, for a special exhibition.

Does taxidermy give you chills? Even you might find it hard to not find Walter Potter’s work entertaining – and take comfort if you do, his subjects were apparently never killed deliberately for his collection / our amusement. Although, according to the Guardian, his friend’s dog Spot killed most of the rats in a piece known as The Drinking Den. Spot got her comeuppance when she died though – Walter Potter stuffed her too and added her to his collection.

So what do you reckon, is taxidermy trend or travesty? Maybe that depends on the artist. Walter Potter (born 1835) taught himself after leaving school aged 14 and originally opened his Potter’s Museum of Curiosity in a shed behind his Dad’s pub. The final collection, which reportedly included 6,000 stuffed animals, was split up and sold at auction in 2003. The Museum of Everything exhibition co-curators James Brett and Peter Blake are aiming to borrow back as many of his major works as possible for this show.