The picture and the lady

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), the German born naturalist who defied social conventions and produced some of the most beautiful insect studies of the 18th century.





Two plates from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705)




Insects and Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian






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Fauna

Lot No 252
A TAXIDERMY MOUNTED BEAR SKIN
MOUNTED BY VAN INGEN AND VAN INGEN, MYSORE, FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
With ink stamp to backing 'VAN INGEN & VAN INGEN, MYSORE 28835'
59 in. (150 cm.) long; 48 in. (122 cm.) wide





Lot No 242
A TAXIDERMY CROCODILE
FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
Cased in a William IV mahogany cabinet with brass castors





Lot No 251
A TAXIDERMY MOUNTED LEOPARD SKIN
MOUNTED BY VAN INGEN AND VAN INGEN, MYSORE, FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
With ink stamp to backing 'VAN INGEN & VAN INGEN 26423'



Chreistie's Interiors - Style & Spirit
23 Februrary, 2010


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The curious made extraordinary

All Visual Arts presents The Age of the Marvellous

Inspired by the Wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosities, popular in the late Renaissance through the Baroque period (ca. 1550–ca. 1700). An era characterized by a revival of learning, the sum of all of man’s knowledge could be represented in rooms filled with natural wonders, artificial exotica and relics or art works concerned with the supernatural.

The Wunderkammer‘s particular ability to evoke the marvellous, to incite the emotions of awe, wonder, surprise and astonishment leading to curiosity and then learning was based on its ability to draw parallels and unify seemingly unrelated fields of human knowledge like Science and Art. The brilliant evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson considered the unification of knowledge – or what he labeled ‘Consilience’ in his eponymous book published in 1998 - nothing short of imperative for the survival of the human species.



Adam Fuss’s photograms
Alastair Mackie's Metamorphoses




Polly Morgan's At the Beginning, inspired by a Victorian proposal for a flying machine.




Kate MccGwire's sculptural works made from crow and jackdaw feathers.



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I don't get it

Is the financial gain so significant it justifies the bastardisation of the esoteric?

Four from Oly:


swan oil painting



sunda ornament
cast resin ornament w/ metal base (sold individually)



saw bills
cast resin with black wood base



albert and fiona busts
resin busts with hand-appled green verdi-gris finish
albert (right), fiona (left)


Four from life:


Trumpeter Swan, plate 406 from Birds of America, 1827-1835
by John James Audubon



Early 19th Century whale's vertebra



Collection of mounted 19th Century sawfish blades



Bust of Dame Edith Sitwell
by Maurice Lambert


You decide.


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Shell collecting, literally

Digitate Thorny Oyster - Spondylus ictericus (Reeve, 1856)



Atlantic Thorny Oyster - Spondylus americanus (Hermann, 1781)



Regal Thorny Oyster - Spondylus regius (Linnaeus, 1758)


Jacksonville Shells



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Up close and personal

The world of Emma Hawkins as it appears in the March issue of British Vogue. Pure fire and music.


A cabinet of curiosities.


In her studio surrounded by her extraordinarily fine examples of natural history. The giraffe's head is from her childhood bedroom.





Vignettes of her Scottish idyll.



The entrance hall with its polished Caithness stone floor.

Vogue, British Edition - March 2009
Photographs by Simon Upton
Produced by Pippa Holt

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Random

SalvadorDalí's Face of Mae West Which Can Be Used as an Apartment (instalation), c.1974
TEATRE-MUSEU DALI




Stand at Portobello Road



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Cock and other things

A 19th Century example of an Andean Cock-of-the-rock by Deyrolle of Paris.





Unusual Collection of Fifteen Mounted Bird Skulls.

Mounted on custom gray steel stands, including examples of hornbills, ibis, spoonbills and parrots, Each skull with cranium, mandible and maxilla, some, especially the hornbills, exhibiting the colour of naturally exposed bills and crests.

New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc.

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I think...

A LATE VICTORIAN TAXIDERMY CASED SWAN (Cygnus)
LATE 19TH CENTURY
Mounted in a floor standing glazed display case with reeds and foliage.


This would make a wonderful hall table or serving table in a dining room.

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An elephant in the room?

Today the lovely Mrs. Blandings addressed the issue of taxidermy in interiors in her post, I'm Stuffed. Normally, a subject I prefer to stay away from. I know most don't get it, as was evident with the negative response Domino received for the Steven Sclaroff squirrel, which I not only respect, but am glad of the fact.

Taxidermy isn't for everyone, especially those who just regard it as a fad. Taxidermy, and the larger oeuvre of natural history, is for those who see or seek wonder. A wonder that is beyond ego and from a different age where curiosity and learning were encouraged.




Here, Victorian cases of birds, domed specimens, a crocodile and bracket fungus are used as sculpture.



A rare example of a Victorian penguin rug is used in lieu of a painting and the mounted horns are used to add depth to what would be an otherwise flat wall. The leopard cushions, a recycled 1930s coat, add life to a boring expanse of sand coloured upholstery.



In this scenario, Victorian cases are used in the same way pictures could be used. Ethographic items, skulls, and preserved specimens are used as sculpture.








Compare and contrast the two examples below. One is superb and of museum quality, while the other is merely good. As with everything, the finer examples are harder to find and undoubtedly are much more costly. Truth be told most find even the merely good to be more than they wish to spend. Hence, the proliferation of not only mediocre examples but also of 20th century examples masquerading as Victorian. The Internet is positively littered with them.





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More tales from the Road

Lot No 1258
Large Edwardian Taxidermy Figure of a Heron, first quarter 20th century, presented against a painted backdrop of sky and clouds and dried swamp weeds within a bowfront glazed display case, h. 34-1/4", w. 26", d. 12".


This is so good it could be one of ours. But it isn't, it is coming up for auction at the New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc. in early October.

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Honourable mention

Natural History, in the September Issue of the Financial Times, How to Spend It.
If you blink, you will miss it.

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More tales from the Road

Alien

So there I was attempting to conduct our business, when this woman comes along and starts eavesdropping. I can't begin to describe just how much this pisses me, and my client, off. Simultaneously, he fell silent and I felt myself flush. This is never a good thing. Luckily, this particular client has been coming to us for years and not only knows what I am like , but has himself been on the receiving end.

Client: Don't get upset.

Can I help you?

Tourist woman: No, just looking.

Well, if you wouldn't mind...

Tourist woman: What is that?

It's a rock.

Tourist woman: vacant look

Want a closer look? Moving towards her, strained, venom dripping and anything but the vision of sugarplum fairies dancing through my head.

Tourist woman: her phone rings, she moves away to answer.

Saved by the bell.

Clearly, she didn't like the idea of others listening to her conversation.


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More tales from the Road

Flying Fish, Madeira 1897

All 5' 4" of him ( 5' 6" if one were to include the tallish hair) - Why do flying fish fly?
That was it. That is what he wanted to know. That is what I came inside to answer. Why do flying fish fly?


Friends of Dorothy's, though I am pretty sure he wasn't.

All 6' 2" of me - Because they can?

In my head -
a) So that one day you will be able to waste my time.
b) Ask David Attenborough.
c) Better yet, go and ask the Wizard.

Click. There's no place like home. Click. There's no place like home. Click. There's no place like home. Clck, click, click....Damn. The shoes don't work.


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Going, going...

August 2nd and 3rd, 2008
New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc.
801 Magazine Street
New Orleans, La 70130


Lot 36


Lot 37

In Chinese mythology, the Earth was borne by three elephants
which stood on the back of a giant turtle, symbol of the primitive oceans.

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More tales from the Road

Ouiser, you sound almost chipper. What happened today, you run over a small child or something?

Something better. No one dipped into my bucket. Love days like this.

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Just pottering about

Walter Potters's original museum in Bamber.


The Death and Burial of Cock Robin


The Kittens' Tea Party


Monkey Riding a Goat, with Spot, the dog with a charmed life, in the foreground.
According to legend, the monkey and the goat were both mischievous beasts - the monkey raided a fruit shop in Shoreham and the owner threw a bucket of cold water over him. The shock unfortunately proved fatal. The goat came from Wiston Park where no fence or hedge could keep him in. When they finally met their end it was thought suitable that the monkey could ride the goat and keep him in hand in perpetuity.


The Guinea Pig's Cricket Match


The Lower Five


The Kitten Wedding

There is a new book chronicling the work of Walter Potter, Walter Potter and his Museum of Curious Taxidermy by P.A. Morris.
Walter Potter was a self taught Victorian taxidermist who created one of the most popular collections in Britain. The British are nothing if not sentimental about animals. And his anthropomorphic tableaux appealed to that sentimentality for more than 140 years.

The collection was dispersed at a two-day sale held by Bonhams in 2002.

The full Bonhams catalogue.


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