{"id":242,"date":"2011-08-16T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T14:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susanmalmstrom.com\/museum\/?page_id=242"},"modified":"2023-10-15T22:56:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T02:56:32","slug":"object-highlights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/?page_id=242","title":{"rendered":"Collection Survey Sampler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our collection survey.\u00a0 Here you’ll find the researched provenances of just a few\u00a0of the amazing Repository artifacts, originally part of Dr. Consonant’s New Museum of the Pacific, now contained in the <\/em>Repository of Wonders.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Toupee of Charles Stratton (\u201cGeneral Tom Thumb\u201d)<\/strong>
\nDr. Mycenae T. Consonant, Owner\/Operator of the New Museum of the Pacific, was once referred to by a critic as \u201cthe feminine, latter-day P. T. Barnum,\u201d which could not have been further from the truth. However, she did meet Barnum as a child, shortly before his death in 1891, and later gratefully accepted the gift of Tom Thumb\u2019s Toupee<\/em> from Barnum\u2019s estate. The two photographic prints supplied here demonstrate how Stratton (b.1838, d.1883) appeared, with and without his lagniappe. The wig was well preserved and remains in excellent condition to this day, as may be observed.<\/p>\n

\"wig\"Toupee of Charles Stratton<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tomTom Thumb with Sister-in-Law (left) and Wife (no toupee)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tomthumbwithwig\"Tom Thumb, with Wife and Toupee<\/em><\/p>\n

Military Dress Gloves of Edgar Allan Poe <\/strong>
\nIn 1831, Edgar Allan Poe (American, b.1809, d.1849) sought to leave his post of Cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. When ordered to participate in a military dress parade in “white gloves, belt & boots” Poe arrived \u2014 dressed only in the items as listed in the order. His state of dishabille earned him a court-martial, and he was subsequently dismissed. These gloves are believed to be those donned by Poe as part of his dismissal plot stunt; the initials “EAP” are stamped in ink on the inside of the right glove, while the left Glove contains a Quartermaster\u2019s stamp contemporary to West Point Academy in the 1830s.
\n\"gloves\"Military dress gloves of Edgar Allan Poe<\/em><\/p>\n

The Crickets of Versailles<\/strong>
\nDuring the reign of Louis XVI, French courtiers were ferociously competitive in their continual efforts to appear more fashionable than their competitors, as they continually tried to best each other at any and all endeavours. One day, a courtier brought to the palace a cricket in a small bamboo cage that he purchased from a market stall. He told everyone that he intended to build a beautiful house for it to live in, to secure it a long, healthy life, as he had been told by the cricket seller that a cricket’s death would produce bad luck. The purchase of crickets and the building of ever-more elaborate living quarters for them quickly became yet another competitive fad at Versailles, and the halls of the palace became so noisy with the chirping of the creatures that it was difficult to hold a conversation. The King ordered a bonfire to be built, and all cricket cages were confiscated and thrown into the fire, destroying the crickets as well as their miniature domiciles. Within six weeks, with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, the French Revolution was well under way, spelling doom for the French monarchy.
\n\"cricketCricket cage, wood, French, ca. 1780s<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Michelangelo’s Maquette<\/strong>
\nOne of the most valuable pieces held in the Repository is this bust, attributed to Renaissance master Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. It was originally discovered in a back room of the artist\u2019s last known studio building in Rome, and thought to be a maquette (small scale model) for his famous sculpture of David, discarded and then painted by someone \u2014 perhaps an apprentice, as a sort of prank. While studying art history at Wellesley College, Dr. Consonant surmised that it was actually painted by Michelangelo himself, during a period when the artist demonstrated a strong interest in reviving polychromy (multi-colored) statuary, modelling his experimental work on that of the ancient Greeks. As is evident, most of the original egg tempera paint has flaked away, leaving behind only a hint of how it would have appeared as the artist intended. Shown below is Michelangelo’s Maquette<\/em>, as it exists today. Below that is the editor’s rendition of how it might have originally been painted.<\/p>\n

\"davidMichelangelo’s Multi-colored (but faded) model of David<\/em><\/p>\n

\"davidEditor’s reconstruction: Michelangelo’s colorful maquette, prior to paint erosion<\/em><\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s Lucky Charm<\/strong>
\nThis desiccated alligator foot is thought to be a gift to Napoleon Bonaparte (Corsican, b.1769, d.1821) from Lafayette (Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, French, b.1757, d.1834), who brought it back with him from New Orleans, and presented it to Napoleon as a joke.\u00a0 The foot became a precious good luck charm to Napoleon, However, when he noticed that his most successful campaigns were those carried out when it was in his possession.\u00a0 According to the journal of one of the general\u2019s contemporaries, the pied d\u2019alligator<\/em> seems to have been mislaid just before Napoleon was due to join his troops at Waterloo (1815).\u00a0 A frantic search proved to be unfruitful and delayed his departure considerably.\u00a0 Some scholars of military history now lay the blame of the ensuing loss of this key battle between the French Imperial Army and the Seventh Coalition to this delay \u2014 rather than other theories previously posited \u2014 e.g. Napoleon\u2019s bad handwriting on a critical battle plan that was indecipherable to his lieutenant, Napoleon\u2019s waiting too long for the battlefield to dry, or that the General suffered from debilitating hemorrhoids, preventing him from properly mounting his horse.\"\"\"gatorNapoleon’s good luck alligator foot<\/em><\/p>\n

Jade Elephant<\/strong>
\nThis life-sized (approx. 1 inch or 32 mm square) sculpture of the once abundant Nepalese Micro-Elephant, known as \u201cMinikins\u201d is a rare find from the Far East.\u00a0 Evolved from the Dwarf Elephants of Crete, and the forerunner to today\u2019s largest land mammal, the Minikins roamed throughout the Mediterranean region, then Northern Africa, eventually finding their way to the Indo-Chinese border.\u00a0 They settled in Nepal, where they were considered sacred.\u00a0 Ancient texts recall their trumpeting bellows, which could be heard from several feet away, and the site of a large herd \u2014 which spread for several yards at the peak of their population \u2014 was an inspiration (when they were not being trodden upon).\u00a0 Little evidence of the existence of these might, albeit tiny, creatures remains to this day; there is reportedly an extant Minikin skeleton in good condition stored in a reliquary in a Nepalese temple, but it is not allowed to be viewed by outsiders.\u00a0 The jade statue presented here was owned by a Nepalese king; it was brought by Dr. Consonant to North America from one of her treks to the region in 1908.
\n\"jade\"Nepalese Jade Elephant<\/em><\/p>\n

Pre-Columbian Deity<\/strong>
\nFound by Dr. Consonant in Chiapas, Mexico on one of three (known) archaeological digs in 1902, this small statue is believed to depict T\u2019ouch\u2019ma\u2019pud\u2019ca, the ancient Aztec god of gratification, ca. 1480 AD.
\n\"touchTouch’ma’pud’ca: Aztec deity of gratification<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our collection survey.\u00a0 Here you’ll find the researched provenances of just a few\u00a0of the amazing Repository artifacts, originally part of Dr. Consonant’s New Museum of the Pacific, now contained in the Repository of Wonders. Toupee of Charles Stratton (\u201cGeneral Tom Thumb\u201d) Dr. Mycenae T. Consonant, Owner\/Operator of the New Museum of the Pacific, … Continue reading Collection Survey Sampler<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":140,"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":989,"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242\/revisions\/989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/repositoryofwonders.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}