After fully embracing 'World Book Day' on the 3rd March, I stumbled across a very special find...
The 'Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' by Albertus Seba. This book is a four-volume catalogue detailing magnificent specimens, ranging from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, corals, butterflies, squids, spiders and even fantastic beasts such as the hydra and dragon!
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| Page Extract from ' Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' Albertus Seba | | | |
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| Page Extract from ' Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' Albertus Seba | | | | | | | | | |
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The book really inspired me to find my own collection of curiosities around Grays. Here is what i found:
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| From Linda Bee at G rays Mews | | | | | | | |
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| From Linda Bee at Grays Mews |
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| From Linda Bee at Grays Mews |
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| From Linda Bee at Grays Mews |
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| Page Extract from ' Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' Albertus Seba | | | | |
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| From Gillian Horsup at Grays Mews |
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| From Christopher Cavey at Grays |
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| From Christopher Cavey at Grays |
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| From Christopher Cavey at Grays |
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| Page Extract from ' Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' Albertus Seba | | | | |
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| From Ghazi Ghafoori at Grays Mews |
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| From Ghazi Ghafoori at Grays Mews |
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| Page Extract from ' Cabinet of Natural Curiosities' Albertus Seba | | | | |
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The history behind the book....
The 'Cabinet of Curiosities' was originally a collection of objects and artefacts that evoked curiosity and wonder to the viewer, the contents of each cabinet contained both natural and man-made objects. These cabinets were also referred to as Wunderkammer which translates to 'Cabinet of Wonders'.
In many ways, the cabinets represented a world-view that valued the 'wonder' in an artefact much more than the need to analyse and classify that artefact. During the 17th Century when cabinets of curiosity reached their peak, there were not yet universal systems of scientific classification and each collection sported its own unique organisational structure.
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| Fold-out engraving from Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599), the earliest illustration of a natural history cabinet. Link from Wikipedia |
If you, like us are inspired by the strange and the wonderful, you may discover your own Wonderkammer right here at Grays. We house over 200 dealers each with their own extensive collections, come and take a look!
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Very cool! Love this!
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