Show us your Cabinet of Curiosities or Wunderkammer

[Bobby Rico]

Show us your Cabinet of Curiosities or Wunderkammer 

 

I’ve been thinking about museums a lot, their beginnings and the roll they play in understanding of our society and the planet. A lot of museum’s started their humble beginnings as one person’s private collection. Cabinets of Curiosity can arguably be seen as an ancestor of the modern day museum.

Our own forum also could very well be seen as a museum without geological, physical or social boundaries. For example, we showcase themed collections that are sometimes collaborative and often intentional like the “show us your’’ posts or sometimes more individual in their natures as with member collections with the original poster being the sole custodian. As with museums the forum is a place to share knowledge and to learn/discover in equal measures.

So moving on to this post “show us your curiosities or wunderkammer collection’’. As with most museums and private collectors, a verity of different objects can be seen on display. The objects that we collect and display reveal something about the owners. Every quaint item that a person selects and displayed in their home has a part of the owner’s personal or idiosyncratic history. As collectors, we add a value and meaning not only to the things that we choose to collect but also to the items that are destined, given or bestowed upon the next generation. I am interested in seeing your weird and wonderful objects that you keep alongside your fossil collection, anything belonging to natural history (not fossils), geology, historical artefacts and works of art. In fact any object of beauty and interest that is placed in the juxtaposition within your fossil displays. Please provide some information about each object you choose. Finally if possible it would be fun to choose and show one or two objects from a museum collection (not a fossil) that would fit into your fantasy Wunderkammer.  

 

My objects

1.     Blister pearl in a clam shell from Norfolk coast, UK.

2.     Juvenile Meta Menardi orb-weaving spider’s web dusted silver pigment to enhance the web structure and placed behind mirror glass. Ethically collected from a cave in New Jersey.

3.     Libyan Desert Glass –created from sand exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion. This piece has also been knapped and used as a tools during the Pleistocene period. Polished by the winds and sands of the Sahara desert. There is a piece of Libyan Desert Glass used in the scarab in a piece of jewellery called a Pectoral – found in the tomb of Tutankhamun

 

My fantasy Wunderkammer

 

 4.  Witch in a bottle

from East  Sussex Brighton and Hove .

 Pitt Rivers Museum  Oxford   UK

 

5. Charles Darwin's favourite octopus

 A common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, collected by Charles Darwin in 1832     off the Cape Verde islands natural history museum London.

[FranzBernhard]

Nice topic!

I have only one object to present. I have found it during looking for the mineral lazulite in the Fischbacher Wald, Eastern Styria, Austria, around year 2000.

This skull of a badger was just lying on the forest floor, perfectly prepped, fully articulated with movable mandible. Ok, some teeth are missing, but there is the extra bonus of some pathology within the mandible - some cancer? Total length is 12 cm and his name is "Schnappi".

I often find bones of various animals in the forests, but this is by far the best "bone specimen" I have ever encountered. And its the only "bone specimen" in my home.

Franz Bernhard

[caldigger]

                              Ouch!!!

That looks like it would have caused the little guy a lot of pain. 

[Bobby Rico]

2 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

Total length is 12 cm and his name is "Schnappi".

Bless Schnappi he did not have it easy. Thank for posting and if you have the time, how about an item you spotted in a museum that would be amazing to add to a curiosity cabinet.  Cheers Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

I think you my like this thread @ziggycardon 

[ziggycardon]

14 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

I think you my like this thread @ziggycardon 

Ooh it does! Right up my alley, my entire house is kinda a small cabinet of curiousities

 

No wall or corner that's free of bookcases, showcases, maps, swords or something else  

My living space is really a reflection of all my interests covering: natural history, fossils, geology, animals, history and film & television. A common nickname all my friends use for me is human encyclopedia due to my great interest & deep knowlegde in what others consider general knowledge. 

I hope you don't mind me commandeering this post for a while, cause I think I need a few posts to cover it all  

 

First I shall give a small tour through my museum... uhum, I mean house  
And then I'll highlight a few items from each category  

The places where my entire collection (apart from the living animals) is located are my living quarters, my fossils room & my bedroom. 

Most of you allready know my fossil room, which won't be really covered any futher here.
All my fossils are housed here as well as all historical items that are considered prehistoric artefacts like stone tools and arrowheads as well as a few taxidermy specimens and the odd stone.

 

 

Then there are my living quarters where I have displayed all my meteorites, minerals & stones, most of my taxidermy/natural history collection, a portion of my movie replica's, all of my books and all of my historical artefacts and items. 

 

And then there is my armory, I mean bedroom where the rest of my movie replica's are displayed and a few of my natural history items are stored.

[ziggycardon]

To start off with a highlight on my Taxidermy collection/Natural History! Hard to pick a favorite though so I'll show just a few hightlights of them all!  

 

The first picture are my favorite taxidermy items.

A cut Nautilus pompilius shell, a Carcharhinus sorrah jaw, a Horseshoe crab & the skull of a juvenile saltwater crocodile.

 

The second picture however is special because all the specimens here are moults & dried specimens from animals of my own collection. 
Some are probably already aware that I keep alot of terraria & aquaria, but due to time restraints I had to cut my hobby sort and the easiest way to do that was to stop with breeding with all the insect species I kept (which were quite a few).
You can see here the moulds of a whip spider (Damon medius), Tarantula's (Brachypelma smithi & Grammostola rosea), the moulds of a cockroach (Blaptica dubia, grasshopper, stick insect (Dares philippinensis), Praying mantis (Hierodula sp.)
Dried insects like Chlorocala africana oertzeni, Stephanorrhina guttata guttata, Pachnoda marginata peregrina, Allomyrina dichotoma & Dares philippenensis as well as a beetle coccoon & a mantis Ootheca.

 

The rest are my collection boxes with arthropods cast in resin.

 

Here are my favorite Historical artefacts!

A scaled replica of the famous Rosetta Stone, a replica of a Egyptian canopic jar, a replica Viking Chess piece, a piece of of the Berlin Wall, a piece of Roman pottery, a Greek/Scythian arrowpoint, an old Belgian franc, an old clay pipe, a roman belt buckle, a roman coin, a Spanish copper, a Napeleonic pistol ball & Musket flint, Egyptian beads, a predynastic Egyptian serrated lanceolate point, Neolithic quartz & ostrich shell beads, a Neolithic flint knife and a Capsien flint knife. 

 

Here are the highlights of my mineral/geology collection!

These are my most rare, unique and favorite pieces of that collection

A dripping stone, 2 Selenite Crystal (Desert roses) from Roekeberg, Hessen in Germany which is quite rare from that location, a piece of Fulgurite (petrified lightning), a "fluffy" Indian Okenite, Yellow Brucite & rutile quartz.

 

Here are my favorite volcanic specimens.

A big chunk of obsidian, snowflake obsidian, Mahonie obsidian, a piece of Sulphur, a beautiful volcanic rock from Iceland. 
Olivine rich sand from Pu'u Mahana cinder cone in Hawaii, very fine grained volcanic ash from Mount Quizapu in Chile, volcanic ash from Mount Saint Helens, volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajokull, volcanic pumice from the Hekla & obsidian rich sand from Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii.

 

 

[ziggycardon]

Here is my entire meteorite & impact glass collection.

A vial with K-T boundary ejecta layer from Stevns Klint, A large unclassified NWA meteorite, A cut piece of Muonionalusta meteorite, A vial with microtektites from Hell Creek, A impact shocked belemnite from the Nördlinger Ries crater, A piece of  K-Pg boundary layer clay with microcrystites from Woodside Creek in New Zealand, A piece of Indochinite, Libyan glass, Moldavite, Irgizite & Darwin glass

 

A piece of NWA 10393 a CO3 meteorite, a piece of Chelyabinsk meteorite, a piece of Tatahouine meteorite, a piece of NWA 7986 a lunar meteorite, a piece of NWA 6963 a martian meteorite, "star dust" grinding waste on a magnet from the Muonionalusta meteorite, a piece of Campo del Cielo meteorite & a piece of Canyon Diablo meteorite

 

Here are some replica's of famous historical documents that were attachments with enclyclopedia's I own!

The Planisphaerium coeleste

Pages from the diary of Carl Linnaeus

Blue print of the Titanic

The last will of William Shakespeare

A letter by Charles Darwin to his cousin William

An extract from the proofs of the second edition of Darwin's book on orchids with handwritten corrections for the printer

The signature of Charles Darwin

The admission card to Charles Darwin's funeral

 

And no cabinet of curiosities can go without a little some Cryptozoological of mystical items like a supposed footprint cast from the cryptic creature named Orang Pendek. 

When I was a child I was kinda interested in cryptozoology, this is a relic from the old guilty pleasure  

 

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

Ok I thought I would add one more item to the cabinet. This was given to me by Mrs R and it was given to her by a friend who's  mother was an archaeologist in the 1970s . Sadly the location of this find of a beautiful spearhead has been lost . I think it is amazing and almost looks like a replica until you zoom into the base of the spearhead and with a loupe you can see fossilised glue and fibres. The glue I think was probably made by boiling tree sap or bark and when it has cooled down chewed to make it flexible.

 

[Bobby Rico]

@ziggycardon I just got a message from The Smithsonian they would like to have their collection back. 

Thanks for posting and I will be back with some questions after I properly looked though your collection.

[Bobby Rico]

2 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

cryptic creature named Orang Pendek. 

When I was a child I was kinda interested in cryptozoology, this is a relic from the old guilty pleasure  

This is very fun I also would love a similar but Bigfoot cast for my collection. I have also been fascinated by cryptology and Bigfoot since I saw the 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek . 

I really like your clay and Fulgurite .

Thank you for adding your amazing collection. Cheers Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

@snolly50 and @caldigger I was wondering if you both would be kind as to add some of your cool artefacts to my post. No problem if you’re very busy. Cheers Bobby 

[snolly50]

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

add some of your cool artefacts

Was going to but need to get photos done. It's a fun topic, so soon.

[ziggycardon]

On 4/10/2019 at 9:04 AM, Bobby Rico said:

Ok I thought I would add one more item to the cabinet. This was given to me by Mrs R and it was given to her by a friend who's  mother was an archaeologist in the 1970s . Sadly the location of this find of a beautiful spearhead has been lost . I think it is amazing and almost looks like a replica until you zoom into the base of the spearhead and with a loupe you can see fossilised glue and fibres. The glue I think was probably made by boiling tree sap and when it has cooled down chewed to make it flexible.

        

What a beauty! Truly a piece to be proud of!  

On 4/10/2019 at 9:09 AM, Bobby Rico said:

@ziggycardon I just got a message from The Smithsonian they would like to have their collection back. 

Thanks for posting and I will be back with some questions after I properly looked though your collection.

Haha they can bloody well try!   
Thank you, I truly love the topic, had a good fill today by taking photo's of the collection and pics, I think I nearly took 90 different photo's for this topic, it was quite hard to make a selection  

On 4/10/2019 at 11:00 AM, Bobby Rico said:

This is very fun I also would love a similar but Bigfoot cast for my collection. I have also been fascinated by cryptology and Bigfoot since I saw the 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek . 

I really like your clay and Fulgurite .

Thank you for adding your amazing collection. Cheers Bobby 

Same here it's a very cool subject, even thought it's a pseudoscience and most of the cryptics are fantasies and mere legends, some so bizar that I can't believe some people believe them, but some cases really let you wonder what might still be out there to discover.
After all giant panda's & okapi were once considered to be legends as well  

 

And thank you, they are some of my favorite items in the collection!

Really love this topic, I am currently waiting on a nice piece of artefact which I hope arrives tomorrow, I'll be sure to show it here as well when it arrives  

 

[Bobby Rico]

1 hour ago, snolly50 said:

Was going to but need to get photos done. It's a fun topic, so soon.

Thanks mate 

[snolly50]

The varied, sometimes eccentric items, that we find interesting and assign to our daily surroundings are fascinating fodder for the Forum's appetite. Perhaps revealed are bits of an individual's history, their passions and their personal aesthetic sense. 

 

Here is a small, simple "coffee table" that occupies a space in the "formal" living room at Palatial snolly Manor. It is an early to mid 1900s Duncan Phyfe style piece. This table occupied snolly's parent's home for many years. snolly has a distinct, vivid memory from age four or younger. The age is fixed because of the house were we lived. We moved when snolly was four. I remember being in the living room of the old house, placing my index finger in the groove of the table top margin, circling the table in a clockwise manner, while dragging my finger in that groove. Constant humming accompanied this activity, but the exact tune intoned is lost in time. 

 

Atop the table are a bayonet carried by one of snolly's ancestors during the most horrific time of this country's history - the US Civil War. To the left is the first fossil fish in snolly's collection, a poorly preserved but cherished, imprint. To the right a priceless fossil of a baby dragon can be seen. Above it is an abalone shell filled with polished hematite. A large cigar box with a wonderful scarab motif serves as support for a few Meg teeth. The painted wooded egg and wooden bowl are a mystery as to origin. The bowl is carved, inlaid and painted. Is it from snolly's parent's travels to Russia, perhaps? 

 

  

 

In the same room is a small lyre-based table supporting Oaxacan wood carvings that snolly loves. A magnificent dragon and a frog are flanked by Halisaurus jaw fragments (prepped by snolly). The fossils are supported on salvaged wild cherry bases.

 

[Bobby Rico]

@snolly50 thank you so much. Very interesting. What incredibly beautiful table displays. So much history of your life can be gauged form this collection of objects. I also really really like you’re Oaxacan wood carvings very playful.  I think our homes are very alike.  cheers Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

Now I would like show you one of the greatest curiosity cabinets of all, the Pitt Rivers museums in Oxford UK. The Pitt River is packed to the ceiling  with objects of the wonderful, the weird, the beautiful and the dark. In fact an complete array of ethnographic objects that are very artistically displayed in atmospheric light . Museum curates more than half a million objects and I think they have 95% this collection on display which is incredible. The ethnological collections that forms the basis of this museum was gifted by Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers in 1884 to the university of Oxford.

 

 

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

@ziggycardon thanks I do really like spearhead and the technology that is involved  in it’s make up.  Thank you for taking part in my  thread much appreciated 

[ziggycardon]

I currently counting down to the final season of Game of Thrones which premieres sunday night.  

And I think these are a fitting addition to this thread as they are indeed a curiosity  

They are the 3 petrified dragon eggs of Daenerys Targaryen, found in the Shadowlands beyond Asshai.

[Bobby Rico]

5 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

3 petrified dragon

Are you sure they are not concretions ?   

 

They do look good in your display. 

[ziggycardon]

51 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Are you sure they are not concretions ?   

 

They do look good in your display. 

Best not to mention that to Daenerys the mother of dragons, could be a touchy subject for her  

 

But thank you they make a cool collectable for my Game of Thrones collection as well as a very eye pleasing decorative piece  

[Bobby Rico]

@JohnBrewer have you please  got any time to post some of your weird and wonderful Victorian oddities. Cheers Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

@Tidgy's Dad I was wondering and hoping that you have some Moroccan artefacts in your collections or any other interesting objects  . I am trying to build a  virtual Curiosity Cabinet of members treasures, 

 

cheese Bobby

[caldigger]

I dont have the room to display much in my place, so at this point of the journey fossils have won out for display space.

But I will try to dig out something from the

"steamer trunk of wonders" sometime soon.