Rare Aquatic Cornish Pasty Victorian Museum Specimen Find

Tiny part of Boffins Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities ' Collection

Rare Aquatic Cornish Pasty Victorian Species Specimen

found in Scandinavian Museum Cabinet

Dear Boffins laboratory journal reader

Living in social & geographical isolation as the Boffin does (like you had not noticed) it was my various medication, meanderings, collections & tinkering's which drew me to the steampunk aesthetic.  Boffins own 'Cabinet of Curiosities' being various & peculiar, the steampunk objects & gadgets just nestle right in there alongside occult & natural history specimens.

The Boffin recently read on Brass Goggles forum that Steampunk is not just about Victorian-esque cloths!? 

For me it has never been about the cloths.  Heresy for some SP's, well yes, Boffin concurs there is something both airy & convenient about wearing nothing but an open back surgical frock gown, prosthetic assisted & converted elbow length rubber acid proof gauntlets, surgical face mask & multiple magnified optical lens apparatus in the laboratory (Health & Safety would approve). 

However this is apparently not a good look or socially acceptable day wear to answer the front door for receiving eBay parcels from the man of the postal service.  It's the bending to put the parcel down exposing lower nether region buttock cleavage due to wearing nothing but the open back surgical gown that clinched it, or should that be clenched it. Who knew?

The point being Steampunk is for some adherents to the genre/aesthetic other than cloths.  For the Boffin it revolves around my ever growing 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.

Which is why I was delighted to learn that an exceedingly rare example of the believed to have been lost 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty'  Pasty aquaticus had been located in a Scandinavian Museum Cabinet.



 Genuine specimen Finnish Museum Natural History;
 said by Prof. BB may be of the extremely rare 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty'

A little research quickly established no records whatsoever of a Victorian captive breeding programme of these strange & rather bizarre frilly tentacle creatures. Despite now being rumoured to have been used by the Bodmin Moor fishing fleet to herd towards nets,  the equally rare Cornish double winged flying pilchard as used to be caught off the East coast of Cornwall.

Now the geographically inclined will say 'Hang on , there is no East coast of Cornwall, that's called Devon' .  Exactly!  That is what makes these 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty' beasties so damn rare!

Both of the exceptional Cornish species said to be rarer than even a live specimen of the Scottish Haggis. 

Boffins Bunker has secured initial research funding from the Brass Ministry of Pointless Experimental Exercises, a micro small steampunk budgetary section of the Treasury Dept.  If the Boffin can procure a tissue sample from the Scandinavian museum pickled wet specimen, then Cornish Pasty, Jellyfish & Sculpey *TM cross breeding programme can be eventually begun in the Bunker early last year.

Boffins Bunker experiments cannot be any weirder than fish genetic DNA being used in tomatoes?

Boffin will let you know how we get on in time. (In time for what I'm not sure)

NB: NOT FOR THE SENSITIVE or WEAK OF STOMACH: 
For many more examples of 'Cabinet of Curiosities' Wet Specimens both real & faux visit Boffins Bunker research page on Pinterst  'Get Wet & Pickled' 

Pickle wet specimen creatures for the Steampunk Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities

Pickle wet specimen creatures for the Steampunk Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities

(Alternative title: 'Get Wet & Pickled')
(Another alternative title: 'A wet specimen is for life, not just Halloween')



Genuine Museum preserved Wet Specimens

Every respectable gentleman (& some less respectable) of Victorian leisure & science would have had a virtual home museum of artefacts & objects in their private collection, often housed in the library or study.



Malplaquet House, London
image acquired from Pinterest

A Cabinet of Curiosities, or Wunderkammer of quirky, weird & natural (& unnatural) wonders. These were often after dinner conversation pieces for the gentlemen (& the more adventurous non-swooning ladies).

Now these collected objects could get pretty bizarre & genuinely quite creepy.  However, no respectable well read person of Victorian science or barking mad laboratory boffin would surely have been without their wet 'specimens'.  Boffins Bunker no exception & we had to create a few of our own for our cabinet of curiosities.




From Boffins Bunker's own 'Cabinet of Curiosities'
(i) Real Snakeskin Oil, (ii) Kraken Squid Cephalopod, (iii) Occult Divination Nutshells



 

Wet squid specimens nestled amongst other objects in
the Boffin Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities'

I have an inspiring image collection of Cabinet of Curiosity collections here on my Pinterest http://pinterest.com/boffinsbunker/cabinets-of-curiosities-wunderkammer/

but where does one get specimens?

Ah, well, that takes application & dedication, ferreting about and often looking at things in a slightly different perspective...like the luminous fishing bait moppet lure used in the above wet Kraken squid specimen.

"I collect.
What I cannot collect, I create. 
What I cannot create, I imagine.
What I cannot imagine...others will,.. in time!

A virtual collection of wet specimen images may be found here on Boffin Bunkers Pinterest board 'Get Wet & Pickled'

Fuzzy Spectrum Steampunk meandering or What is steampunk?

Fuzzy Spectrum Steampunk meandering or What is steampunk?

Define steampunk... is it pre-'polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride'
  
Oh dear, Boffin has again been asked 'what is steampunk'?

For me & I can only speak personally, to me it is;-

A fantasy view of a pre WWI-past era envisaged into the future, created or enacted/stitched/built/written/painted/performed/etc. in the present

 had they had our technology in the past.

(There you go.... Clear as mud!)

Historical era wise for me  Steampunk draws influence from & reflects (but not slavishly copies) a style period from the end of the Georgian C18th running up until-ish the end in 1910 of Edward the VII reign or a pre-WW1 (1914-18), so Victorian-esque give or take a decade of style origin.

...or to put it another way Steampunk reflects mainly (but not exclusively)  a time pre-mass production of 'polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride' or 'Bakelite' as it is more commonly known as, an early plastic invented in 1907.

iRetrofone Steampunk styled after one of bakelite 
techstyles.com.au

Contradiction: But then I 've seen some fab Art deco influenced steampunk items, which historically design-wise runs up until almost the outbreak of WWII in 1939, so that pre-Bakelite guide is most of the way out-the-window ....



Deco lamp
featured on gadgets.boingboing.net  -

For those who say historically plastic has no part of the Victorian era from whence most steampunk draws influence from.  Well 'no plastic' ('squirms'), strictly speaking is not quite true as celluloid, (Ivorine or French Ivory) an early form of thermoplastic & often used as a faux ivory, had been around since the C1860's & was widely used for making many objects inside the mid reign onwards of Queen Victoria (1819 -1901).

x4 Celluloid Hair Combs c1890
previously offered at auction
 whitakerauction.smugmug.com  -

Basically, I see steampunk, as people socialising, making, creating & having fun!

 (Please don't try to put my perception of steampunk in a rigid box; unless its mahogany & then only if it has brass bound corners & recessed carrying handles!)

Now the Boffin developed steampunk interests in virtual complete isolation from any steampunk organised influences. In fact I've found steampunk moderately hard socially to break into on forums & in chat, but Boffin knows what he likes.  My influences may have been subliminal images from some science fiction films, the occasional stumbled upon picture & a healthy teenage diet (decades ago) of pulp Science fiction.

Having also been an antique furniture restorer & polisher as a form of employment years ago & being an avid collector of multiple & diverse 'things' may also have helped.

Most people once involved in steampunk I feel will develop their own sense of 'what is steampunk' to them...and that's just fine!  A sort of Fuzzy Spectrum of Steampunk ranging across a diversity of approaches, perceptions & appreciations.

Steampunk...it's what you make or make of it!

Kind regards

BB

Faux Fantasy Fungi Cabinet of Curisoities Mycology Specimens & Museums

Another short slide show video from the Boffins Bunker. 

More images of my faux antique Victorian Museum Mycology specimens.
 
I created these fantasy fungi for my own Cabinet of Curiosities when I realised just how much the original papier mache C19th antique examples of Fungi sold for...which were well outside my meagre collectors budget.

Is this Steampunk, no, not really but you see I don't care.  I find my various natural history objects, taxidermy, object d'art & antiquities sit most comfortably beside my Steampunk creations.

 

 

 

There is something about old Victorian Museum Collections which I really like.  I think one of my favourites being Tring Taxidermy Museum in Hertfordshire, which I had the good fortune to visit last year with a dear friend. A gentler experience than say the usually hugely crowded London Natural History Museum, although rug-rats & ankle biters still abounded, but less frenetically so. 

 

The delightful Tring Museum of Taxidermy, Hertfordhire, UK 2012
Less crowded than  the London Natural History Museum & somehow more intimate & personal.

 

Most smaller museums still (due to budgetary constraints) have lots of specimens & artefacts all packed in cheek by jowl in a serendipity pot luck of what may be exhibited side by side. Usually the bequest of a philanthropist Victorian gentleman personal pot luck collection of foibles & quirks which took their exotic fancy in their lifetime.  

 

Some museum's seem to be returning to that sort of exhibition, which pleases me.  After years of minimalist displays & sticky telephone computer audio explanation as to what artefacts were (usually with a tape recording with an American accent, why?).  I like hand written spider like museum exhibit labels which have faded with time, which in themselves require careful examination to decipher. 

 

Perhaps I should run a completion on Steampunk Empire, with one of the faux fungi as a prize,  inviting people  to come up with some Dog Latin or Pig Latin names for these fungal mycological species examples; (when (if) I get some  blog followers).

 

NB: There are other Steampunk & Cabinet of Curiosity slideshow videos on my youtube channel here:-

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/BoffinsBunker

 

...and pictures of more of my creations on Pinterest here:-

 

http://pinterest.com/boffinsbunker/-steampunk-cornwall-other-cabinet-curiosities/

 

 



Cabinet of Curiosities Mycology Fungi Specimens from Cornwall

These are a few of my Victorian Museum style Mycology Specimens. I made these fun Fantasy Fungi for my 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. 

They are in keeping with my other interests of Steampunk & Occult, sitting happily beside other  bizarre items and artefacts in the collection.  The genuine C19th antique papier mache museum specimens of fungi & mushrooms are so very expensive.  A single Victorian antique example on eBay listed for over £100, so I made my own.

These fungi created in my Boffins Bunker using  wire framed & aluminium foil as armature, with a skin of polymer clay (One of my 1st ventures into using 'sculpey' TM).  Mounted on an ebonised (Black French Polish) wooden base.



'Cabinet of Curiosities' Victorian Museum style Mycology Fantasy Fungi
Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall

Below: A close up on two smaller specimens each being under approx. 4cm inc. base



'Cabinet of Curiosities' Small (4cm approx.) Victorian Museum style Mycology
Fantasy Fungi Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall

Some of my Steampunk insects & creepy crawly creations look quite at home sat on the larger fungi specimens.

For more images of my work & other items I've started a Pintrest Board which can be found here.