A set of fourteen Denton's Patent butterfly tablets, 20th century

Sherman Foote Denton. (1856-1937), Son of the Naturalist explorer who died in New Guinea of Jungle fever, started ‘Denton Brothers’, Sherman, one of 4 brothers in the trade, was an American naturalist, and specimen collectors. Sherman, inventing as system where individual butterflies were mounted on plaster under a glass frame, a technique that he patented and known as “Denton Mounts”

The brothers continued to collect specimens all over North & South America after the death of their father. Their collection was world famous and won gold and silver medals at the [Exposition in Paris] in 1900. The demand from Great Britain was particularly insatiable, so in 1897 Shelley Denton opened a shop on Regent Street in London. He almost didn’t make it. The S.S. Londonian, carrying 22,000 butterflies and the mounts sank, and all was lost.

Undaunted, he crossed the ocean four times to replenish his collection, and soon was supplying the newly fashionable items not only to lords and dukes, but also to most of the museums in Great Britain, including the British Museum. His show at the Rembrandt Gallery in London broke records.