My Library, The Curiosity Cabinet

The "Cabinet of Curiosities", or Wunderkammer, has been a slight obsession of mine since I was a child (possibly coinciding with my first visit to the Harvard Museum of Natural History). The notion of the Cabinet of Curiosities began during the Renaissance, as a sort of predeccessor to the modern natural history museum. These cabinets, or sometimes entire rooms), were filled with objects taken most often from the natural world. Sometimes the objects were manipulations or alterations of naturally occurring specimens leaning toward the occult or mythological, such as chimeric taxidermy (like the Fiji mermaid) or mysterious crystals claiming to have powers.

16th century engraving (by Giuseppe_Maria_Mitelli) of the Curiosity Cabinet of Ulisse Aldrovandi.

Later, curiosity cabinets began to contain found objects as well, including pretty much anything that caught the fancy of the cabinet owner. That's where I find myself today.

When my husband and I moved into our current house almost five years ago we had been living together for a couple of years and so we knew each other's aesthetic tastes. The house is fairly small, but it has more bedrooms than we knew what to do with so we immediately decided to turn one room into a library of sorts. 

Slowly but surely our library (and to some degree, other rooms – as visitors can attest) has become our own little Cabinet of Curiosities. We collect lots of "strange" things like antique taxidermy, antique dresses and costume, paper ephemera, books, shells, sticks, bones... pretty much anything that catches our fancies. We teeter on the edge of "hoarding" pretty much every day, but having things displayed in this manor allows us to confidently say "We aren't hoarders; We're collectors!" (It's a fine line, I know...)

My husband is a comic book artist and illustrator, and his work has a very specific aesthetic (each piece is also similar to an illustrated Curiosity Cabinet) and so we justify keeping a lot of our found objects by calling them "drawing reference". It's amazing how often he pops into the library, now dually serving as my sewing studio, to grab a replica bird skull or a starfish so that he can get just the right angle on what he is drawing. 

I'll never forget the time I hosted an orchard cleanup potluck at my house and several of my horseback riding students came to help. Someone discovered the library on a trip to the bathroom and before I knew it I had a crowd of tweenager/teenagers in my room, whispering and pointing and asking all sorts of questions. They'd never seen anything like it, outside of a museum, and the notion that someone could have a collection like ours was certainly new to them. They still talk about it now, though it was at least three years ago! 

Today I thought I'd share a few photos from my library/curiosity cabinet/studio. The taxidermy we collect is all legitimately antique or of domestic/legal mounts - I'm a little paranoid about wildlife law! Some of the bones we have processed and cleaned, ourselves. In addition to the room itself, I have quite a few "mini-cabinets" and boxes that I have paper-crafted.

I will be posting a pre-Valentine's Day tutorial next week on how to make miniature curiosity cabinets like this for your secret admirée! They're a beautiful addition to any shelf/wall and since they are primarily paper-crafted you can add whatever you want to them to make them wholly your own! 

Okay, this one isn't really part of the library, but what is a Curiosity Cabinet without a resident feline friend? He's certainly curious!

Do you have any areas in your house that you think of as Curiosity Cabinets? 

Vintage Decor: A Headboard of Sorts

I have entirely too many vintage items in my possession, so, to combat my habit, I am constantly looking for new ways to incorporate my pieces into things I actually am in need of. 
 
One example of this is a vintage (or vintage inspired?) Japanese wall screen I found a few years ago at a consignment store. (I apologize for the photo quality; this thing is impossible to shoot!) Unfortunately, like some of my other items, its origins are completely unknown. I have no idea how vintage this piece is or if it's simply vintage-inspired! The wall screen is in four separate pieces and about 4.5 ft wide by 3 ft tall and 1 inch deep! It's made of wood and incredibly heavy - this and its areas of wear point to it being at least a little bit aged! I feel that I have to mention the fantastic pros for shopping at consignment stores; I got this entire screen for 60 bucks (that's only $15 per board!)! It was a total steal.

When I got it home I of course had absolutely no idea what to do with it, but, after a good talk with my design consultant (my mom) we decided to put it to use as a makeshift headboard. This is a great solution for me especially because I've never been a fan of the traditional headboard (a completely irrational dislike, might I add!). Although the screen is definitely placed too high to be considered a real headboard, it serves its purpose and is the perfect substitute for my anti-headboard self!

Substituting a giant piece of art for a headboard makes all too much sense to me as a student of art history. It adds a ton of extra visual interest and is the perfect statement piece! 

The wall screen has some great details: each colored part is first carved into the wood piece and then painted. The reflective faux gold foil background grabs your eye and pulls you in to the beautifully coupled birds. There are intricate metal tabs (barely visible in the photo) at the top of each board. It's all really quite stunning!

Pieces like this are what I feel really make vintage design work. Do you have any vintage (or vintage inspired) pieces that you've used in different ways than expected?

-Ellen

Paper Ephemera: A Vintage Wintery Print

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite vintage prints in my collection! This was printed in 1946 and depicts Central Park ice skaters from 1862. It's the perfect wintery inspiration scene for all the snow we've been getting here in Michigan lately! Here's a detail with the publishing date and place, and a hardly readable description stating what the piece depicts.

I love the typography used by the publisher, the block letters make this perfectly adorable. Couldn't you just imagine living in 1946 and dreaming about the days it was 1862? It's almost the same difference as us dreaming about the days it was 1946!

The details in this print are fantastic. Overall it has a fairly soft look - almost like a watercolor wash was put over the ink! There has definitely been some careful attention paid to the clothing and people in the print, too. I love the little hat worn by the man in the yellow jacket and look at that woman being pushed in a sleigh-type chair! There are also quite a few people that have fallen flat on their butts - little details that give the print a very relaxed and fun feel.

The whimsical wintery details make this print even more enjoyable in my eyes - we get to see a 1940s perception of the perfectly terrible ice skaters of the 1860s.

Prints like these are some of my favorite vintage items, I love collecting and displaying them everywhere. Even though the wear and tear on this print is pretty visible, I think that it gives it a little extra character!

Do you have any vintage prints that look even further back in time?

Ellen

Friday Favorites: The Vintage Lamp

Welcome to the first of many Friday Favorites! Today the Seven Magpies team will be sharing some of our favorite vintage lamps.

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My favorite lamp of all time is this vintage ceramic lamp stand that doubles as a woman in medieval dress. It's made of a heavy, hollow ceramic and the base is painted gold. The texture and drapery in her dress makes for fantastic shading when the lamp is turned on! The low cut neckline on her kirtle and her delicate mantle date the figure back to probably the 14th or 15th centuries.

Unfortunately, I have no information on when this lamp was created or exactly how vintage it is! I found it hidden at a consignment store a while back and its sellers only knew that the lamp was very old and treasured by its previous owner. Has anyone else seen lamps similar to this?

Another fantastic lamp that resides in my home is this vintage amber lamp from the mid 1960s. We found this guy at an estate sale and updated the lampshade. Even with the sleeker shade, it still is in a time of its own and I can totally picture it in a setting that matches its funky coloring and curves!

One thing that's really interesting about this lamp is the contrast between the more ornate base and the mod stand. It definitely adds a little bit of intrigue to the design. I also love the way the amber color has been intensified by the curvature and twisting lines wrapping the stand. This amber lamp (much like others from its more recent era) add a little retro spin the whichever room it calls home and is the perfect statement lamp!

-Ellen

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It wasn't until Ellen began posting about vintage lamps that I realized it's an area of antique decor that we have sorely neglected in our small farm home. I used to have a couple of lamps from the 60s years ago in my dorm room, but they have since been replaced by more practical, less eccentric lighting.

The one vintage lamp that we do have, however, is a gorgeous green banker's lamp, an original "Emeralite" that supposedly was made in the 1920's. 

Green lamps like this have been used in banks, libraries, and other close workspaces, for over one hundred years, and their calming blue-green light (thought to increase creativity and mind power) was the signature of the lamps produced by "Harrison D McFaddin". This one currently sits on my husband's drawing desk and its green light adds a calming glow to our living room as he works into the wee hours of the morning. 

--Emily

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Do you have any vintage lamps in your home?