Large Reticulated Python Skin

Large Reticulated Python Skin - Museum Quality

Price: $475

Shipping: TBD

Dimensions: need to find and measure a box to hold about 16" x 18" x 4" pouch

Weight: aprox 9 lb

Well, here's something you don't see every day.

There are several very high res pictures below, so it may take a while to load this page.

This is a reticulated python skin that I bought over 15 years ago. The person that sold it to me had raised the snake from a newborn or whatever baby snakes are called. She died of natural causes related to laying eggs some years later. If I remember correctly, he was going to have the snake mounted by a taxidermist. He paid a small fortune to have the skin professionally removed and tanned (preserved). Later he decided not to have it mounted. I bought it back when I was making guitar straps, several from python skins. I was actually going to use this large skin to cover a Marshall amp head and cabinet. I'm not sure it was big enough for all that and I never got around to doing it. I also did not make anything else out of it because it is a beautiful skin. The pattern is too big to make small things like guitar straps. It has been sitting in my storage for all those years.

You have probably seen python skins tanned the normal way. If not, look at my python guitar straps. Pythons tanned the normal way lose almost all of their color and feel like very dry leather. That's what everyone is used to when they think of python skin - straps, boots, cloth prints, etc. A live python doesn't look like that at all. A live python looks like this skin - rich colors of green, olive, brown, tan, etc that blend into the jungle.

I do not know the method of tanning for this hide, but it is amazing. The natural color remains. The skin feels soft and supple and is thick and heavy. To the touch it feels waxy or oily, but nothing comes off on your hand when you handle it. It feels like a live snake, not like dried-out leather or dried-out snakeskin. The cutting was done very carefully, down the center of the belly. The edges are smooth and straight. Near the tail are the cutouts around the anus. In the head are cutouts around the eyes. The pieces on both sides of the head are the jaws, as the belly cut went from the front of the mouth/lower jaw to the end of the tail. The inside looks like the outside, but not as vibrant color because the actual skin is on the inside. That skin is sort of translucent, so you can see the pattern on the outside, but a bit cloudy.

There is a very slight smell - not bad, not good, kinda earthy, maybe like a snake or something related to the tanning? I don't know. It has been wrapped up in storage for a long time, and I expect the smell would decrease or go away entirely if it was allowed to lay out for a while instead of being inside a small pouch. The pouch is pictured. It is a thin black cloth bag that zips open at one end and was made to size specifically for this hide.

I've included a number of very large high-res pics. I thought I remembered there being a couple of tiny holes, but I didn't see them when I took the pictures. There are some wrinkles from folding, but the hide is soft and heavy and they lay down OK. A little time laying out would no doubt make them disappear entirely.

It weighs a little over 8 1/2 pounds. Overall length is about 18' 7". The long section in the middle is widest, about 15".

I took pictures beginning at the tail and going up the full length to the head so you can see in high res every inch of it.

This is what I would expect to see in a museum exhibit, stuffed, and ready to drop out of a jungle tree on an unsuspecting victim, maybe a wild hog or something. It is a beautifully preserved hide.

I swear my floor didn't look so bad until I took some close-up pictures! I guess I need to do some mopping now.

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