Auzoux’ horse model – An object for teaching the anatomy of the horse

There are about ten models of Auzoux’ papier-mâché horse around the world; one of them is in the collection of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.

150 years of teaching… and counting

In the 19th century, the French anatomist Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797–1880) ran a very successful manufacture for building anatomical teaching models. One of the most outstanding, demountable models he ever created was that of a horse in life-size. One of these horse models was used to teach horse anatomy in Halle (Saale), Germany, for more than 150 years. Today, this precious specimen is under state protection as a nationally valuable cultural asset of Germany. The film now makes this unique model fully accessible again for teaching purposes. The original model is housed in the natural sciences collections (ZNS) of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.

Papier-mâché and French labels

The horse model can be dismantled into 97 parts and bears more than 3,000 original labels in French. The model is made of papier-mâché on a wire and metal framework. It was painted with tempera and several layers of varnish. The agricultural department of the university of Halle (Saale) acquired the model during the directorship of Prof. Dr. Julius Kühn (1825–1910) in 1874. This series of life size horse models had been on sale since 1853. Seven years before its acquisition, a prototype of this series was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris. Only about 10 of these horse models made by Auzoux, belonging to four different series, are known to exist worldwide. The model from Halle was extensively restored in 2019-2021, thanks to funding from the Coordination Office for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage (KEK) in Berlin.

Exploring the historic model

This film sequence is intended to support teaching of horse anatomy (Equus ferus Boddaert, 1785) and to illustrate how this historic model works. All parts are labelled in French according to Auzoux's original specifications.