This chamber of curiosities has a second-period format, with an age-of-reason feel. Here similar items are grouped together and displayed in a manner which adheres to modern taxonomic notions. Along the south wall, items of natural history and science are displayed, and the minerals are presented by mineralogical family, the shells by genus within family, etc. The facing wall includes man-made materials, textiles, ethnographic artifacts, boxes and tools, also presented in a logical manner. As discussed in chapter 2, first-period wunderkammern would have more of a helter-skelter feel.

You first encounter a reasonably large mineral collection consisting of about 1500 of the world’s 4000 known minerals. The silicates are segregated from the sulfides and sulfates, etc. Some minerals are represented by beautifully-formed crystals, such as tourmaline and aquamarine. The specimens tend to be relatively small sized…fist size or smaller due to the space constraint. The extra-terrestrial section includes a meteorite found in Namibia and a piece of the Challenger space shuttle found in the Bahamas.

Two sections are dedicated to shells. You’ll note the drawers below are filled with specimens as well. This collection also includes about 1500 specimens, including some of the great rarities like the golden cowries, worn by Tahiti Chieftains as the emblem of their authority, and the imperial slit shell, traditionally thought to become automatically the property of the Emperor of Japan whenever recovered from the sea.

The next section displays a collection of US patent models from the period 1836 to 1880. This section represents science and technology, a typical wunderkammer theme. In the US, patent applications were normally submitted with a working model demonstrating the invention. To save space the Patent Office required these to be no bigger than a foot in any dimension. If the application was granted, the patent number was sequentially assigned –patent #1 was issued July,13,1836–and the model was put on display open to the general public at the Patent Office in Washington, DC. This was a very popular tourist site in the 19th century.

Nonetheless, the Patent Office ended the patent model after 45 years. Crammed with over 200,000 of these models, and believing better quality patents would be written if the inventors relied only on their words and diagrams, the Patent Office no longer accepted models with the applications after 1880. Twice fires raged through the collection destroying many of them, and finally the Patent Office sold off the remaining patent models in the 1940’s. The collection illustrated here consists of several hundred of them, including one issued September,22,1836, patent # 30, the model with lowest patent number in private hands. (Numbers 1-29 are in the Smithsonian.)

Here are a variety of wood working tools, drills, planes, hammers, saws, etc, through out the ages. Examples of the ax here date from as early as 4000BC and continue through Minoan Crete, 2000BC, through Roman, medieval, and to the 17th through 19th centuries. There are stone-age examples as well, from prehistory through American Indian to modern-day New Guinea. It’s fun to trace the evolution of such a simple and necessary item throughout history.

In the next section, see all the variety the simple idea of the box congers up. These examples date from the 17th to 19th centuries, represent all cultures, and are executed in all materials, from straw to gold.

This next section displays ancient and ethnographic material. The top two shelves are Asian, the next, Mesoamerican, the next classical Egyptian, Greek and Roman, and the last three shelves, Native American. Some connections are unexpected. For instance, all the glass beads here, those from 18th century China, 19th century Sumatra and Africa, those from 19th century Aleutian Islands, and those from 19th century American plains Indians were all made in the small Italian city of Venice. Venice had the world-wide monopoly in glass bead making from the renaissance through the 19th century, a monopoly it maintained by forbidding , on pain of death, its glass bead workers from leaving the city.

A collection of textiles includes a number of American quilts as well as 16th through 18th century needle works. Not shown are other collections of bronze-age implements, glass bottles from Roman to the 19th century, birds’ eggs from 19th century collections, butterflies, and so on.

This last section shows two unrelated collections, one of 19th century American enameled granite ware or agate ware (a cheap decorative surface put on common cookware to brighten up the day of the common man) and one of items decorated with feathers (from exotic feather headdresses from the jungles of Peru and New Guinea, to a pre-Columbian c 800AD cotton and feather pouch–top shelf, left–to fans and ladies hats from the Roaring 20’s.) These two materials contrast sharply, one being cheap, plentiful (at least at the time of manufacture), and indestructibly utilitarian, the other being rare, exotic and fragile. Yet when juxtaposed next to each other, a certain tension is created which adds drama to the presentation. This intentional juxtaposition is what the first-period wunderkammernists strived for. Moreover, alternating the two kinds of items was specifically recommended by Samuel Quiccheburg in his important treatise on wunderkammern, published in 1565, considered the definitive manual for marvels and curiosities.

This wunderkammer, I am assured, helps the owner celebrate on a daily basis what a great world it is, brings him much pleasure, and improves his mind. Do you know of any private curiosity cabinets, large or small which perform the same service for their owners? Please email me if you do at funstonantiques.com.

About 6 hours south of Kassel, and on the other side of the Alps is the beautiful city of Innsbruck, Austria, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, and nestled in a lush green valley ablaze, in early May, with the cherry and lilac blossoms.

It is here that Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand II (1529-1595) moved to in 1564, converting a gothic castle into a Renaissance palace, and here that one of the most satisfying wunderkammern can be seen today. It is exhibited in the same place and in much the same manner as was first installed by Ferdinand in the 1560’s.

Ferdinand’s father, uncle and older brother were each Holy Roman Emperors. His uncle, Charles V (1500-1558) was perhaps the best known and most powerful Holy Roman Emperor of all times, and the empire then included Austria, Hungary, upper Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

So Ferdinand II had plenty of money and plenty of free time and he put both to good use in assembling one of the most famous wunderkammern of his time. Though it was sold for a fortune by his son about 1600 to Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) and was then temporarily moved twice to avoid the devastation of war (during the Napoleonic era and World War II), this collection has remained quite in tact. And what we see today is quite similar to what Ferdinand left behind.

His plan (and the one used today) was to group items based upon the materials they were composed of, and place each group in its own floor-to-ceiling case, where the background color was chosen to show that group to best advantage. Thus the goldsmith items were presented against a blue background, the wood against red, the stone against green, etc.

The goldsmith items usually were natural items of great rarity set in gold settings. For instance, here is a coconut shell, a rare and wondrous item in the 1560’s and one reputed to have magical healing properties, mounted as a chalice with gold base, handles and ornamentation. The blue, as selected by Ferdinand, sets off the gold work nicely.

18 such cases were placed in the middle of this large room back to back in rows of 9, and the walls and ceiling at the perimeter were richly hung with paintings and oversized items (Auer et al, p 30).

The collection was encyclopedic, and the scope as broad as possible with naturalia and artificialia from all fields of knowledge. And the various collections were presented side by side with the gold and treasury items to underscore the idea that all of God’s works were of equal value.

The categories included many predictable ones for a princely wunderkammer, goldsmith works, stone works, instruments (scientific as well as musical), bronzes, and exotica such as ivory and mother of pearl works, but then also ones of particular interest to Ferdinand, such as hand stones, coral, wood turnings produced by his turnery, glass, including that executed by his own glassworks, and natural history.

Hand stones were bizarrely shaped rocks and minerals sized to fit your palm that were then trimmed with tiny gold and silver figurines. Here a porous mineral specimen has had its niches filled with gold support columns and subterranean human figures, all surmounted by Christ’s crucifixion.

Ferdinand II owned the world’s most important collection of hand stones of his time (Auer et al, p36).Here is another hand stone where the natural specimen seems to be white coral. Biblical figures rest about its base while one of their numbers receives a visitation by an angel, who you can see atop the coral column. This is a particularly beautiful object.

Coral was richly represented. Here a collection of a wide variety was mounted on bases, and at the beginning of this chapter, naturalistic coral had sections carved in the image of Christ’s crucifixion.

Wood was elevated by being so skillfully turned and filigreed often by Ferdinand’s own turners. See the detail of a large Tirol sepulcher c1575 as well as a similar work in ivory.

Similarly Ferdinand’s love for Venetian glass caused him to found his own glass works, producing these crucifixes. (You can’t help but notice how often the subject is a crucifix…you might say they were crusi-fixated.)

This glass works also produced glass images. This example shows an image of Adam and Eve on paper sprinkled with powdered glass and featuring glass trees and figures.

The bold architectural design of this brass and iron lock shows that base metal works deserve inclusion in the wunderkammer.

Mandrake roots naturally occur in the rough shape of the human form and so were valued for their alleged magical properties. This mandrake root looks like a crucifix and would have been doubly prized as an example of mirabilia, an object demonstrating a miracle.

And just plain bizarre: here is a pair of leather boots from the mid 16th century where the toes are individually sheathed like gloved fingers.

The walls and ceiling at the perimeter of the room are here hung with a 16th century taxidermist’s shark lurking among other naturalia.

The adjacent 3 rooms house Ferdinand’s collection of knightly armor and Renaissance military weaponry. In 1564 he had 17 tons of armor transported to Ambras. The knightly material give witness to how important jousting was as a form of courtly entertainment in Ferdinand’s time, while the military material reminds us of how conscious the Hapsburgs were of the nearby threat of the Turks who occupied Eastern Europe.

Ambras is not to be missed. I’d recommend most of a day for the armory, wunderkammer, and the impressive portrait gallery in the main palace (see info.ambras@khm.at.) After your visit, I cannot recommend strongly enough a trip across town to Cafe Konditorei (Schneeburggasse 3, A-6020 Innsbruck) for pastry. They offer a wide choice of the best pastry I have ever tasted as well as light meals and cocktails.

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References:
Ambras Castle, Alfred Auer, Veronika Sandbicher, KarlSchutz, and Christian Beauford-Spontin, Translated by John Winbigler, (Vienna, 2000).

Ferrante Imperator, Dell'historia naturale, 1599, the first published image of a wunderkammer

THEMES
Generally there were few rules governing the creation of a wunderkammer. 1) Be broad in your collecting. These after all were renaissance men. But the impetus to be broad was more than good manners. Consultants in this field back then advised you to be so broad that you were creating a microcosm of the entirety of God’s world. 2) Use symmetry where you can in your display. 3) Heighten the magic of your presentation by juxtaposing unlike objects for dramatic effect. Otherwise, there really weren’t rules…so the collections tended to be a very personal reflection of the owner’s interests…sort of your own 3-D walk-thru sculpture. And no two were alike.

Nonetheless, you can fit them into categories, based on their date founded, contents, and status of the owner.

Date founded: first or second period

The first period wunderkammern were founded say 1550 to 1650. They tended to be extraordinarily diverse in their contents and, to our mind, chaotically presented. Classification schemes, such as Linneus’ for plants and animals were 150 years in the future so first period collectors grouped things free of any such notions. They might group all the round life-forms together…sea urchins and coconuts, and the square ones together, etc or they might group together things made of the same materials regardless of the items’ history, thus the “unicorn” (narwhale) tusk would be grouped with ivory carvings and fossil bones. The smaller items would be housed in elaborately decorated multi-drawer collector’s cabinets. Part of the joy would be the marvelous way the contents could be spread out over, say, a hundred square feet when examined but then collapsed into the 2 foot square cabinet when all the many drawers were filled and the cabinet shut. Larger items on the other hand were unceremoniously hung from the walls or ceiling.

The second period wunderkammern c1650 to 1780, on the other hand tended to be systematically grouped, using Linneus’ and other modern systems. And the items were displayed behind glass…letting you see it all at once, a less mystical and more rational form of presentation, for the age of reason was beginning.

Scope: Naturalia or Artificialia

Natural wonders (Naturalia) might include actual specimens themselves, often from exotic locations: seashells, coral, stuffed or otherwise preserved specimens, pressed and dried plants, fossils and minerals. A related category was freaks of nature: sheep born with 2 heads, etc. Finally ethnographic tribal arts and crafts , e.g. feather headdresses, would land here.

Man-made wonders (Artificialia) would include craftsman or artist produced pieces that inspired a sense of wonder due to:
A) the extraordinary technique allowing the maker to accomplish the impossible, such as carving a walnut with the entire last supper scene, or paint a particularly realistic tromp L’oiel oil.
B) the opulence of the material involved–whether valuable gems and gold or worked exotic materials, such as ivory, mother of pearl, rhinoceros horn, etc.
C) the technological advance represented by the article–such as scientific instruments of great precision, and clocks, optics, etc. This category had the added renaissance appeal of providing mankind the ability to measure or otherwise control the forces of nature.

Owner’s Status: Noble or Not
In short was the owner a prince or a commoner, albeit a well heeled one such as an apothecary, a merchant or a clergyman? As we shall see, princes had the best financing, and often worked a statecraft agenda into their wunderkammern.

DREAMS

The objective of the wunderkammer founder is typically some mix of the following:
To celebrate God’s greatness and inspire wonder,
To stimulate the intellect,
To conspicuously consume, showing all the world how powerful you are.

I submit that celebrating God’s greatness and inspiring wonder was a prominent undertone in all wunderkammern. But what else besides wonder does the founder want to inspire, fear or learning?

Respect/Fear
Some of the princely wunderkammern are clearly built with a goal of inspiring respect and fear. The most dramatic of these we visited was Duke Augustus the Strong’s Green Vaults in Dresden. The opulence is extraordinary and the motive clear. Augustus the Strong (1670- 1733), Duke of Saxony, was a contemporary of two of the most powerful monarchs the world has ever seen, Louis XIV (1643-1715) of France to the west and Peter the Great (1689-1725) of Russia to the east. It seems Augustus wished to be recognized as very wealthy and thus very powerful…someone to be respected and feared. He for instance added to his wunderkammer of 10,000 precious objects a continuous stream of jewels, perhaps hundreds of them, made by his royal jeweler, J. M. Dinglinger. For two of the most dramatic of these, the royal coffee set and the model of the great mogel’s throne, Augustus paid a total of almost 100,000 thalers, the equivalent of half a ton of gold (Syndram,pp116-118). His opulent gambit seems to have at least partially worked: he was able to lay claim to the throne in 1697 of neighboring Poland by being elected–sort of—to the post without having to fight for it. (A few years later he was forced to go to war to keep his crown and these costs plus the cost of his collecting nearly bankrupted Saxony. But when he died in 1733 he was still king of Poland and Duke of Saxony.) And his son, Augustus III, who continued in these titles and continued in this tradition, paid 400,000 thalers or about 2 tons of gold, for the Dresden Green Diamond which was fashioned into an elaborate hat pin. (Syndram,p173.)

Learning
Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) built at the College of Jesuits in Rome a large wunderkammer, now mostly dismantled. Etched in its walls was the phrase, “whosoever perceives the chain that binds the world below to the world above will know the mysteries of nature and will achieve miracles”. (Mauries p34.) Professor Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1625) founded a wunderkammer of 20,000 objects in Bologna. “Collect, observe, compare”, he admonished and concluded, “nothing is sweeter than to know all things”. (Mauries,pp 148-150.) In fact it was often discussed that with a good library and wunderkammer, one might come to know in the span of a lifetime everything there was to know. Clearly learning was important to many wunderkammerists.

SCENES

Before considering each wunderkammer we visited, a note about the state of originality/preservation, the final attribute. A number of forces threatened the destruction of wunderkammern. Firstly, war and the big ones impacting wunderkammern were the Thirty-Years War (1618-48), the Napoleonic Wars and World War 2. Secondly, wunderkammern, the world’s first museums, often were dismantled and their collections fed into more modern museums. By the end of the 18th century the intellegencia of Europe began to regard the mish-mash of wunderkammern as old fashion and fuddy-duddy. As the new, modern museums were formed using systematic classifications, the old wunderkammern were raided for their materials with increasing frequency. (Incidentally, some of the world’s greatest museums started as wunderkammern, including the British Museum, the Oxford Museum, and the Vienna museums.)
The result is that reconstruction of these wunderkammern has often been required. The good news is that the wunderkammern were generally very well documented by inventory listings and copiously illustrated catalogues produced by the founders, so accurate guides for rebuilding them are available.

So here is the itinerary of wunderkammern we visited (shown in the appendix to this chapter) and a brief categorization of each one:

While the age, type and presentation format of these varied widely, we feel each one we visited was worth the effort, hands down. Each one will be handled in its own blog entry.

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References
Gems of the Green Vault of Dresden, Dirk Syndram (Leipzig,2005).

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Appendix: Details of a trip to the wunderkammern of Germany & Austria, Spring 2009

Two of us made an 11-day expedition in April/May of 2009 to 9 wunderkammern (wonder chambers or cabinets of curiosities) of Germany and Austria for a cost of a little over US$4,000, including flights to Munich from Boston and all meals.

The sites visited are not the only ones worth seeing but give a representative feel for those convenient to Munich or Vienna. We followed a 1600-mile loop northeast from Munich to Dresden, then west to Kassel, Germany, then south, over the Alps, to Innsbruck, Austria then east to Vienna, then northwest back to Munich for the flight back to Boston.

Generally the 2 of us stayed in bed and breakfasts which though comfortable were not particularly expensive (about Euro$100/ night, double occupancy, usually including breakfast). We used John Wasson’s method of finding lodgings. We had no reservations. We simply drove to the center of town which is generally well marked (“zentrum” in German) and once in the center found a few bed and breakfasts, quickly selected one, asked for a room (which were generally available), and moved in. In the summer tourist season this method might be riskier and so for that reason a list of where we stayed and contact information is provided below. We found dinner spots the same way and ate well. We’d almost always walk the city after dinner which I’d highly recommend. I for one was glad most people spoke English.

When planning a trip, bear in mind most museums including wunderkammern are closed Mondays. The exceptions are Ambros in Innsbruck (closed Tuesday vs Monday), the Green Vaults in Dresden and Trausnitz in Landshut, Germany which are open all days of the week. Winter schedules may well be different with more frequent closings. Check the wunderkammern websites (again listed below). Also it’s a good idea to pre-book a ticket on line for the Green Vaults. Also I used Mapquest for best routes and mileage estimates.

Details of our expedition:

4-23-09 Lufthansa flight #425 Boston, MA to Munich, Germany, cost US$501 per person, round trip(flight #424 return trip).

4-24-09 Arrive Munich. Pick up rental car (Europcar, our cost for total trip about US$500) and drive to the city. Visit Residenzmuseum Schatzkammer, see my chapter 3 and their web site (ResidenzMuenchen@bsv.bayern.de). Drive about 50 miles (1 hour) to Landshut. Spend night at Stadthotel Herzog Ludwig (www.stadthotel-herzog-ludwig.de) for Euro$89.

4-25-09 In Landshut, visit Castle Trausnitz, see my chapter 4 and their web site (www.burg-trausnitz.de ). Drive about 250 miles to Waldenburg. Allow 3 hours for drive. We elect to stop en route at Zwickau in former East Germany, staying at Holiday Inn, Zwickau (hotel@hi-zwickau.de ) for Euro$109.

4-26-09 Finishing the drive to Waldenburg (where there are hotels but which we did not research) we visit Linck’s Naturalienkabinet, see my chapter 5 and their web site (www.museum-waldenburg.de ). Then drive about 70 miles to Dresden, a remarkable baroque city rebuilt after World War II bombing. We stay at Hotel Friedrichstadt, Dresden, see www.cafe-friedrichstadt.de, for Euro$112.

4-27-09 Visit Green Vaults (Grunes Gewolbe) both the New and Historic vaults. See my chapter 6 and their web site, www.skd-dresden.de/en/museen/gruenes gewoelbe.html. Must have reservation to visit historic vaults. Might get opening the day you visit but safer to make reservation in advance on line at their website at cost of Euro$6 per person even though non-refundable. New vaults require no reservation. You might consider staying over another night to see all the other Dresden museums which unlike the Green Vaults (open all days) are closed Mondays.

Drive about 100 miles to Halle also in former East Germany –with a soviet-style city hall to prove it. Stay at Hotel Pension Am Ratshof (www.hotel-am-ratshof.de, for Euro$107

4-28-09 In Halle, visit Francke Foundation, see my chapter 7 and their web site, www.francke-halle.de . Then drive to Kassel, about 140 miles west, spending the night at Hotel Deuscher Hof, www.deutscher-hof.de , for Euro$87.

4-29-09 In Kassel, visit 3 separate museums, the Ottonium, the Orangiere, and the art museum to assemble the former wunderkammer in your mind. See my chapter 8.

Then head south to Innsbruck, Austria, 400 miles and 6 hours driving time away. We choose to spend the night along the way in Wurzburg, staying at Hotel Amberger ,www.hotel-amberger.de, for Euro$98.

4-30-09 Finishing the unhurried drive through the Alps, we arrive at Innsbruck, Austria, staying at Hotel Central, www.central.co.at, for Euro$97. We enjoy a great café called Café Konditorei (at Schneeburggesse 3, Innsbruck, A-6020) serving cocktails, light meals and outstanding pastries.

5-1-09 In Innsbruck, visit Schloss Ambras, See my chapter 9 and their web site, www.info.ambras@khm.at . Then head east for Vienna, 300 miles away, stopping after 100 miles in Salzburg. Here we stay at Hotel Neutor, www.neutor.at, for Euro$120, and walk to the nearby Old City for dinner.

5-2-09 In Salzburg, we confirmed the wunderkammer in the Dommuseum remains closed for renovations. It’s open now, see their web site, www.kirchen.net/dommuseum . Then complete drive to Vienna where we visit the 2 national museums, one dedicated to art history, Kunsthistorisches Museum, the other, natural history, Naturhistorisches Museum. See my chapter 10 and their web site, www.khm.at We recommend visiting one of these neighboring museum on this day, the other the next day. We lodge at Hotel-Pension Bleckmann, www.hotelbleckmann.at, for Euro$90.

5-3-09 Finishing the Vienna museum in the afternoon, we set out for Munich, some 270 miles and 4 hours away. En route, we stop at the historic city of Passau, staying at HotelGarni Herdegen, www.hotel-herdegen.de, for Euro$84. We walk the riverfront and nearby castle at night.

5-4-09 We arrive at the Munich airport and fly home.

Not surprisingly, noblemen, scholars and merchants went down to the docks and bought this new-world cool stuff… the seashells, the wild plant material, the “unicorn” horns, the feather headdresses… and brought it home. And they added the products of local artisans and artists, demonstrating virtuosity of the highest order…still lives so realistic you had to tap the canvas to find them two-dimensional, turned carvings of incredible delicacy and complexity, classical sculpture so life-like. And all these were placed in purpose-built rooms, wonder chambers or (in German) wunderkammern, which created a microcosm of the whole world right in your home. These rooms were designed to overwhelm you with a sense of wonder, or in modern parlance, to blow your mind.

My purpose here is to promote interest in these wunderkammern (one wunderkammer, two wunderkammern…sorry, German) to the point where the reader will learn about them, consider visiting some, and perhaps build their own. For the world is a wonderful place and we should more often celebrate that fact.

The literature and internet happily are full of information on this topic. And many beautifully illustrated books were produced in the 16th and 17th centuries as well as in the 1980’s ’90’s and ‘oughts. What I found missing was a practical guide to help you visit them in person. And that’s what I propose to write about, visiting them and seeing in person: the cacophony of form, the bouquet of color, the quirkiness, the opulence, and the stimulus for the curious.

While several thousands of these have existed in Europe, most no longer do and finding the ones worth a visit is not a straightforward task…One which took me hundreds of research hours. So I plan to describe an 11-day itinerary which two of us followed in April/May of 2009 taking us to 9 wunderkammern in Germany and Austria for a little over $4000 US including flights from Boston. (I plan to make other trips to other parts of Europe…England, France, Italy and Eastern Europe in time.) I recommend those with the interest make a similar trip! (For a detailed itinerary of this trip, please see the Appendix to Chapter 2.)

But wait. There’s a recession/depression going on. There are wars being fought with people dying. What relevance could what renaissance people did up to 500 years ago possibly have today? One thought is that then just as now the steepness in the progress curve is especially pronounced and the explosion in knowledge remarkable. A second is this: back then, Europeans were discovering the rest of the world for the first time. History then shows that a period of European exploitation of these new worlds followed, sometimes being rather hard on the newly discovered peoples and places. Today it seems we of European descent are discovering the rest of the world AS AN EQUAL for the first time. Militant Arabs can blow up our buildings, the Chinese economy profoundly affects ours, our environment’s well-being is impacted by the health of the Brazilian rainforest, and an African American is our president. So with renewed respect let’s celebrate the awesome diversity of our world!

Here is a sample of photos from this German/Austrian wunderkammern tour: