Supporting the Habit of Collecting Curiosities
As antiques dealers, we are enthusiastic enablers of the joyful habit of collecting appealing old things.
While most of the antiques we sell are useful furnishings or decorative art and accessories, a subset of treasures that have passed through our hands could be classified as “curiosities” in the traditional sense of objects that fit within categories that were of interest to Renaissance-era curators of curiosity cabinets. (See our previous article on Cabinets of Curiosities for more background.)
Those traditional curiosities included specimens, oddities and likenesses of nature, as well as ethnographic art and artifacts.
Amassing and displaying natural history and ethnographic artifacts also appealed to American rusticators decorating lodges in the mid-1800s to early 1900s, several centuries after curiosity chambers had originated, peaked and faded in Europe.
This 1917 photo postcard shows the great room of Trophy Lodge, an Adirondack camp on Brandreth Lake, NY (image from luminous-lint.com). Some Native American artifacts are displayed (left of mantle) along with massive amounts of taxidermy. We have had the privilege of visiting this privately held camp and were surprised to find that this room still looks the same as it did when this photo was taken over 100 years ago.
We’ll explore the overlap between curiosities and traditional rustic décor by looking back at a selection of natural and cultural curiosities we have sold.
Curious Things
In our experience, the defining characteristics of curious objects are that they are aesthetically stimulating enough to attract attention, yet are unfamiliar enough to evoke the question “What the heck is that?”
When we get that reaction repeatedly to an object on display in our gallery, in our booth at an antiques show, or in our home, we know that we are in possession of a bona fide curiosity.
Here are a few objects that we’ve owned that qualify as curious/strange/unusual, and would also look right at home in a traditional curiosity chamber or rustic lodge.
This taxidermy mount is an albino North American river otter. Given that albinism, or lack of the pigment melanin, is a rare inherited genetic mutation occurring in wildlife in as few as one-in-a-million individuals, this otter qualifies as an oddity of nature.
These are bracket fungi, a type of woody-textured mushroom that grows on rotting trees and logs. In addition to this display of multiple fungi, we’ve often had etched and painted examples of single bracket fungi.
People who have never seen bracket fungus in nature always wonder what these dramatic (some can get quite large) and subtly beautiful (in shape and coloration) things are. This display of 12 pieces of fungus is curious not only because it presents an unusual form of nature, but also because it is a quirky artistic expression.
These artifacts transfer our attention from natural history to cultural history. They are Zuni stone fetishes. Like most curiosities they embody a sense of mystery, in this case because each shape had a special protective power or spiritual meaning for the people who made, wore and carried them.
While most people figure out that this is some kind of fishing implement, this halibut hook, made and used by a Northwest Coast Native tribe, is a beautiful cultural artifact, carved of wood with a mysterious folded-wing bird effigy along one side.
This game bag is another 19th century Native artifact that has a clear use as a pouch for holding something (in this case small game such as squirrels or rabbits), yet is also exquisitely made and decorated by Athabaskan people. Its beauty obscures its purpose to the modern eye and thus evokes curiosity.
Here is a Native artifact that is more puzzling—its purpose stumped most people who saw it. Any guesses?
It is a cedar bark canoe bailer made by a Northwest Coast seafaring tribe. It is sculpturally interesting and also curious because it is open-sided, conducive to a style of light bailing on-the-go that is foreign to those of us who would just grab a clunky bucket to bail out a boat.
We seldom encounter even seasoned antiques collectors who know what these objects are (we have owned several sets over the years). They, too, are Native-made tools which fit the category of ethnographic curiosities.
They are Penobscot basket gauges—wooden tools inset with sharp blades for cutting ash splints to various sizes needed for basketry. Although these particular gauges are about 100 years old, Penobscot basket makers still use similar tools today so their tribespeople would not find them the least bit puzzling, illustrating that classifying something as a curiosity is a matter of cultural perspective.
Snow snakes, like the one shown above hanging high on a wall, are an object that sparks curiosity in every single person who sees one, hands down.
They were, and still are, made by Iroquois sportsmen as the only piece of equipment they need to compete in the game of snow snake throwing. (See our journal article about snow snakes to learn more about the game.) They are sleek and beautiful cultural objects that have a curious (to non-initiates) form and purpose.
At first glance this piece of furniture looks like a burl and mosaic twig rustic table, but upon closer examination, it sparks curiosity—is it hiding something?
Yes! A piano is enclosed in the rustic case. This is one of the more curious pieces of rustic furniture we’ve owned.
Like the rustic piano, this cabinet is extraordinarily heavy, due to the size of the big-leaf maple burl slabs that comprise the case.
It is an unusual use of natural materials (although perhaps not so unusual to aficionados of rustic furniture), and is a surprising form—the door opens to reveal a liquor cabinet. All of that maple mass just to hold a few bottles of booze. Gotta love the curious inspirations of creative rustic woodworkers!
This object earns the label of “curiosity” because it is a physical oxymoron: a functionless chair. Nobody could or would ever sit in it, yet it is clearly meant to be a chair.
The immediate question it raises is What was its maker thinking? Hopefully he earned his living as a sculptor of intriguing forms rather than as a furniture maker.
When we owned this lamp, people did not ask What the heck is that? since it is clearly a table lamp. Rather, they asked What the heck is that made of?
What do you think? If you guessed sliced walnut shells, then you’d be correct!
This is what’s known as a “memory jug,” an intact pottery jar covered with shards of everyday objects—a lifetime of memories presented in a mosaic of shapes and colors—along with natural items such as pebbles, shells and seeds. Memory jugs are tangible psychological curiosities.
When people saw this and other memory jugs we’ve owned, they were intrigued about what the jug was for and why somebody made it, but then they became even more curious about the life of its maker as they tried to identify all of the small encrusted memorabilia.
Our final example of a curiosity illustrates how any cultural artifact can seem strange to an outsider (e.g., the Fiji Islands ceremonial cannibal fork pictured in our journal article about curiosity cabinets seems strange only if you were not a 19th century Fiji Islander).
This is a tea cozy from the 20th century Maritime Canadian culture of Newfoundland and Labrador, made of canvas and wool by a craftswoman for Grenfell Labrador Industries. It amazed us how many people had never seen (or noticed?) a tea cozy in their midst prior to encountering this one in our booth at an antiques show. If drinking tea from a pot that you want to keep warm between cups is not part of your immediate culture, then you would likely classify tea cozies as curiosities.
Over to You
Individual curiosities have had enduring appeal throughout the ages, but so, too, has the art of displaying entire curiosity collections in ways inspired by the aesthetics of 16th-18th century curiosity cabinets.
(image from media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com)
The curators of Renaissance-era curiosity cabinets were dedicated to three things: the importance, appeal, and exoticism of each object; the massive and exhaustive accumulation of individual objects within categories; and the aesthetics of displaying those objects.
As antiques dealers, we focus primarily on the integrity and intrigue of individual objects, leaving it up to customers (who are so inclined) to assemble themed collections of multiple objects, or to create dramatic decorative statements with their collection displays.
But an equally popular trend in décor is to use individual antique and natural objects as accents that bring warmth, depth, character, interest and personality to sleekly decorated rooms. Out with multiple dusty artifacts, in with single polished gems.
So whether your own decorative tastes lean toward the former or latter style, choosing to display one or many beautiful and intriguing natural or cultural artifacts can inspire curiosity, awe and wonder within the interior spaces that contain your everyday life.
