A red balance scale with white plates, each holding a bleached deer skull.

Image of an empty, tiny, glass liquor bottle in the shape of a human skull, sitting in a cubby of a wooden curio cabinet.

Image of part of a curio cabinet displaying a metal skull ring, a piece of bismuth, an ammonite, some seashells, and the centerpiece, a white bird skull made from clay.

Image of a large, iridescent orange moulded glass curio in the shape of a human skull.

Skulls, skulls, skulls, and more skulls, part II.

#WunderkammerWednesday #CabinetOfCuriosities

A view of two cubbies of a display shelf, one containing a pair of seashells, and the other containing a bird skull and a pair of small wet specimen jars.

A cluttered scene centered around a glass dome containing a deer skull leaning against a large chunk of white coral, all atop a light maplewood base. The skull is well worn, with most of the face missing, leaving only the forehead and small, asymmetric antlers. Surrounding the glass dome are various items, including seashells, a small green stained glass star, and some dried plants.

An aged skull from a small animal (possibly a skunk) lying on a blue towel, next to a Sharpie marker for scale.

A clear, double-layered shot glass sitting on a round slate coaster, on a red tabletop. The inner layer of the shot glass is shaped like a human skull. A handful of small stones have been added to the glass to emphasize the skull shape.

Skulls, skulls, skulls, and more skulls. No cabinet is complete without a few skulls.

#WunderkammerWednesday #CabinetOfCuriosities

A snapshot of one shelf in my den of curiosities, featuring a collection of amber glassware, clear glassware, a set of shark jaws, a leather-covered bottle, a lamp made of a white crystal, a candle holder, and a set of clam shells.

#WunderkammerWednesday #CabinetOfCuriosities

Close-up of a glass cloche on a cork base filled with marine items - lobster claw, various shells and seaweeds, a sand dollar, a sea urchin shell, a stone with barnacles, and a mermaid's purse. Refracted sunlight on the glass globe is causing a banding effect on the glass.

Close-up of a glass cloche on a cork base filled with marine items - lobster claw, various shells and seaweeds, a sand dollar, a sea urchin shell, and a crab carapace.

Close-up of a glass cloche on a cork base filled with marine items - lobster claw, various shells and seaweeds, a sand dollar, a sea urchin shell, a stone with barnacles, and a mermaid's purse.

Close-up of a glass cloche on a cork base filled with marine items - lobster claw, various shells and seaweeds, a sand dollar, a sea urchin shell, a stone with barnacles, and a mermaid's purse.

#WunderkammerWednesday

A #CabinetOfCuriosities doesn't need to fill a room to be interesting. Seen here is a cloche filled with marine items - lobster claw, various shells and seaweeds, a sand dollar, a sea urchin shell, a stone with barnacles, and a mermaid's purse.

A mounted specimen of the Goliath birdeater tarantula. The frame is green and the text indicates the specimen originated from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Today's #WunderkammerWednesday delves into the macabre practice of animal taxidermy, with this mounted specimen of the Goliath birdeater tarantula, late of the Dominican Republic. This is a smaller specimen with the body at 6cm long, and legs diagonally 15cm tip to tip.
#CabinetofCuriosities

A photo showing a small glass jar with a ground-glass stopper shaped like a dog's head. The jar is half-full of white corkscrew-like fibres.

A bit of whimsy from the old #CabinetofCuriosities for this week's #WunderkammerWednesday -- look away those of you with delicate constitutions!

Here is presented a vial reportedly containing dried merman sperm, method of collection unknown but no doubt a mind-boggling feat.

Photo of a beautiful example of pysanky done on an ostrich egg and mounted in a plain wooden frame. The intricate design's colour palette consists of red, orange and yellow, with white guidelines.

This week's #WunderkammerWednesday is a lovely example of pysanky done on an ostrich egg, and mounted in a plain wooden box frame for protection. A grand addition to any #CabinetofCuriosities.

Two trinket shelves for this week's #WunderkammerWednesday showing smaller collections of random objects within the #CabinetofCuriosities itself.

From my #CabinetofCuriosities for this week's #WunderkammerWednesday is this antique pocket microscope, also known as a field microscope as they were intended to be used in actual fields. Purchased from a local woman who found it in their attic. Likely dates from the 1850s.

A black shadow box with the interior painted medium blue, containing the horn from a male springbok, and a core from the horn of a water buffalo. The springbok horn is long, thin and black, with multiple narrow ridges ringing it from the root to about two-thirds of the way to the tip. It is affixed diagonally to the rear of the box. The water buffalo horn core is short, fat and bone white, with many small holes and notches, like worm-eaten wood. It sits on its base at the bottom of the shadow box.

My, that week flew by disturbingly quickly.

For this week's #WunderkammerWednesday we have another pairing -- shadow box containing the horn from a male springbok, and a core from the horn of a water buffalo. #CabinetofCuriosities

A glass cloche containing a group of roses with petals made from thin wood veneer or shavings.

A double entry for this week's #WunderkammerWednesday include two preserved specimens of extraordinary blooms discovered by Lord D_ at opposite ends of the world. First a species of wood-like rose, found thriving on a peak in the Andes. Alas, attempts to cultivate it failed.
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A photo of two antique Edison wax cylinders, one still in its sleeve; the other standing slightly canted next to it, without its sleeve, which lies in front of it, the better to show its label. The sleeves are made of cardboard, well-aged with ragged edges. Their labels are blue with white characters outlined thinly in yellow and then black. Both labels say "EDISON BLUE AMBEROL RECORD". One of the wax cylinders is blue, the other is black. They have some illegible writing around their top edge.

For today's #WunderkammerWednesday entry, some might say it does not belong in a #CabinetofCuriosities as surely everyone possesses some of these marvellous wax cylinders recordings produced by that prolific inventor, Thomas Edison, but I say that not everyone is a music collector.

Black and white photo of a starfish and some glassware on a bookshelf. In the background is an apothecary jar containing some monkfish jawbones, a beaker with a seasnail shell, a smaller apothecary jar (empty), and a larger beaker containing a decorative ball with a starfish motif. In the forefront is a laboratory flask containing one quill from an African crested porcupine. The quill is 20cm long, black on the top half, white on the bottom half, with another small stripe each of black and white in the center.

A black and white drawing of an African crested porcupine mother with three youngsters, eating some tubers.

An aged ink and watercolour drawing of an African crested porcupine from a children's book. The porcupine is brown and standing on green ground. The image is labelled "THE PORCUPINE".

A page of text from The Child's Book of Nature (pg. 15) reading: "THE PORCUPINE The Porcupine inhabits Asia and Africa, and though so formidable in its appearance is a very harmless animal. It is about two feet long, and its body is covered with quills, which are from ten to fourteen inches long, sharp pointed, and thickest in the middle; and these are variegated with black and white rings. In their usual state they incline backwards, but when the animal is irritated, they rise and stand upright. When the Porcupine is roused to self-defence even the Lion dare not assail him. He kills serpents by forming himself into a ball, and then rolling his quills over them. It is supposed by some, that the quills have a poisonous quality, which renders it diffcult to cure the wounds inflicted by them. "

Presented here today is the formidable quill of the African crested porcupine, a full 20cm long, deceptively strong, and viciously pointed.

#WunderkammerWednesday #CabinetofCuriosities

First view of a trio of glass bottles prominently displayed and surrounded by other clear bottles: left is a clear apothecary jar containing a handful of unidentified plant pods and a pine cone; in the middle is a sealed, light green flask-shaped bottle with an embossed design around the base and containing various plant and grasses in liquid; the final bottle is similar to the green one but is slightly smaller, empty and cobalt blue.

A second view of the three jars but better highlighting the embossing on the two coloured flask-styled bottles and the beautiful cobalt colour of the right-hand bottle.

Almost forgot #WunderkammerWednesday and though it is technically Thursday here, it's still Wednesday on the west coast. 😁 #CabinetofCuriosities

This week is presented an offering appealing to the more bucolic collector - a trio of glass jars containg unidentified plant stuffs. And a pine cone.

Any self-respecting steampunk will tell you that owning a #CabinetOfCuriosities is an absolute must. I am no exception and desire to show off here my collection of the bizarre and terrifying on the regular. Since there is no day beginning with C, I propose #WunderkammerWednesday instead. 🧵1/2