The Ailsa Woodcock

Wallis set up his business in Louth in 1843. He specialised in carving dead game and foliage from a single piece of limewood, first creating a full-sized model with pipeclay on a wire frame. This carving was commissioned by the Marquis of Ailsa for Cassilis Castle in Scotland and remained there until 2009. The pipeclay model for this work is in the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery. The museum aims to build the largest national collection of Wallis's work and the Art Fund has helped it purchase two other carvings by Wallis in 1997 and 2008. This piece was presented by the Art Fund to mark the museum's centenary in 2010.