Ideas for the contents of a Cabinet of Curiosities? Sideshows / Ripleys' style?

[Coz]

This started out as a Halloween display daydream, but I'm looking for ideas for the contents of an old-style Cabinet of Curiosities - the kind of odd things one might find in a dark, secluded corner of a creepyold museum.

So far I have a pretty short list:
Shrunken Heads (Howlrunner & a couple of our Jack Sparrow fellows have shown these really well)

Fiji Mermaid (the latest issue of Fortean Times has a great How-To guide on creating one of these from scratch)

Hand of Glory (model kit skeleton hand & latex, etc would cover this)

Also Temple of Doom styled chilled monkey brains' head, Skull Chalice (like in Vice-Versa), 'alien' fetus in a jar, necklace of ears / fingers...

Please post your ideas - and pics would be great!

Coz.

 

[Propnomicon]

Please post your ideas - and pics would be great!

Coz.

Things in a bottle. Lots of things.

​

 

[SchubroProductions]

You can find similar cabinets by Alex CF here

Maybe it will give you some ideas.

 

[darthinvictus]

spring loaded monkey paw

 

[dropshipbob]

Masonic items
all seeing eye
finger, arm, hand that looks to be made of stone.

 

[franz bolo]

Old syringes and medical utensils are always cool.

http://medicalantiques.com/

http://victorianlowbrow.blogspot.com/2009/03/victorian-medical-skull-arrived.html

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/12/radioguys_collection_of_r.html


FB

 

[hankey01]

A fish with legs...

 

[Zombie Killer]

One of these skulls 'battle damaged' with vampire or other long pointy teeth, maybe some horn nubs.:angry

http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id...-BC107&utm_campaign=listing&utm_source=online

 

[Betamin]

You could always use one of those cosmetology mannequin heads with the rooted hair to make some nasty severed "demon" head or something that could hang by the hair in the cabinet.

 

[jackdoud]

At least one phrenology bust. :thumbsup

 

[JDarko]

There used to be a curiosity shop in Newquay, Cornwall that was just the most spectacular kooky place ever. Called Puff edz, It sadly closed a few years ago, when the owner moved abroad. It was full of real skulls. from human down to rat, and had cabinet after cabinet of jars. Worthy of note were a human nose, eye and ear, bottles of snake wine, real shrunken heads and bound, pointy human skulls. After visiting four times in four years, I set my own curiosity table in my house, with old religious statues, a human skull (which I'm still considering making into a one eyed willy tee hee) a human femur, various taxidermy eyeballs, various dried lizards, moles and other random things that I have bought and had donated from friends. I still want to make a gris gris pouch and build a feegee mermaid at some point and am always on the lookout for a cheap old school glass cabinet to complete the look. Have a search of cryptozoology sites and you can really go to town. And the mix of real artifacts and built hokum props can give it a real barnum type feeling to it. If I can help in anyway, holler. I could talk about this stuff till everyone else in the rooms' heads explode :lol

p.s there is an awesome shop on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, LA, that is brilliant for this sort of stuff, just search for necromance, Hollywood. I literally had to be pulled away from the shop everytime I walked past it:lol

 

[division 6]

Years ago I had a friend with a cabinet of skulls, all real.
Human, cat, fox, assorted bird, snake and many others.
Accept for the human one that he bought all others where finds or former pets that had passed away.

for inspiration there are some scenes in one of the harry Potter movies that has a shop of all kinds of things (deleted scenes shows more) there are also 2 shops in the Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes.

Make sure to have some Egyptian pieces.

D6

 

[JDarko]

oh. and check out the episode of the X files called "Humbug"!

 

[dropshipbob]

Bumping this because it's a cool idea.

And adding...how about a crystal skull? Not the one from the latest Indiana Jones movie, more like the real crystal skull. There's tons on eBay, but they are not 1:1. I seem to recall a place that sold different kinds of skulls in different sizes and colors, one of which was clear. Only problem is it's pretty realistic, while the real crystal skull/s were somewhat simplified.

 

[Sulla]

Scary traditional Halloween gourd jack-o-lantern?

 

[division 6]

This site may give you some ideas.

Warning real dead things.
http://www.customcreaturetaxidermy.com/intro/intro.html

D6

 

[outlander]

Various movie prop items would fit in if presented in an understated way: Cenobyte Puzzle box, dusty old key mummy BotD key, very old unexplained parchment map. 48thRonin's resurrection amulet from the russian graveyard in HellBoy. Spear of Destiny.

Oujii board. As previously mentioned an antigue phrenology head would lend an aura of Steampunk weirdness. Dusty old leatherbound book. Gotta have a hand of glory. Old framed photograph possibly victorian age safari. Tooth, fang or tusk. Possibly a monkeys paw [from the legend]. Fijan mermaid would be kicka$$ but expensive. Ornate box or small chest with half-seen item poking out.

And as mentioned earlier: gotta have unexplained bottled oddities. The miskatonic piece shown in the photograph looked wonderfully antique and creepy. Oh yeah, a shrunken head always fits but it's gotta be a well done shrunken head.

 

[division 6]

The site I linked to above has some Items that can be recreated using the pictures provided, including the mermaid.

If you have Disney's Atlantis, Mr Whitman has some interesting stuff in his library.

D6

 

[Howlrunner]

You can find similar cabinets by Alex CF here

Maybe it will give you some ideas.

Those are seriously cool! :thumbsup

 

[Patattack]

I've been collecting stuff that I think would fit well in a less "fantastic" and more historical cabinet of curiosities for some time now. Among them...
-real glass eye
-astrolabe
-fossilized turtle shell
-nautilus shell
-petrified wood slice
-vials of green and black sand from Hawaii