Eccentric Museum Objects

Greetings, all! Museobunny here, hopping in with the first of the Attic events to promote our PhD student symposium next year. The dates (and you heard it here first!) will be March 28-30, 2011, and I will post more information about it in the weeks to come.

But first, a bit of a carrot to get you all interested... On our Facebook group, weasked our followers to nominate the most eccentric museum object they had seen. We have had a great response, and now you, Attic readers, get to vote on the winner! (Museobunny has noticed how you like polls, though he thinks he definitely should have been nominated as a museum hottie! He has also noted that eccentric seems to mean macabre for a lot of the entrants; he shudders.)

Here are the entries, in no particular order:

1. Puffer fish helmet, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (entry by Ceri Jones)

2. Stuffed crocodile, Belgrave Hall, Leicester (entry by Julia Petrov)

3. Robert Morgan, Wheel of Fate, 2009, Collection of the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky (US) (entry by: Adam MacPharlain)

4. Japanese Tea House at the Ashmolean Oxford (entry by Jenny Walklate)

5. Canterbury Tales and Classical Gods at Jewry Wall Leicester (entry by Jenny Walklate)

6. Peas in Milk in the National Space Centre - (entry by Jenny Walklate)

7. Nábrók (also known as nábuxur or finnabrækur) - meaning 'corpse pants'. from the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft. This is a re-creation of a creation from Icelandic folktales. Wearing these pants meant you would never run out of money. Not sure how it works? Read more about it here: http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/monsters-and-mythical-beings-nabuxur (entry by Guðrún D. Whitehead)

8. A Snakkur or Tilberi, from the Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery at Strandir. This re-creation is of a mythical Icelandic create, created by women out of a human rib and communion wine. It steals milk from neighbourhood farms and lives on the blood of its creator. (entry by Guðrún D. Whitehead)

9. From the Museum of Pre-history at Cheddar Gorge. This is a large (4 foot/1.5 meter) spinning de-fleshed skull in a mirrored box. Inexplainably this crazy object is just round the corner from exhibits on pre-historic life at Cheddar Gorge and the excavations. (entry by Miriam Cady)

10. From the museum of Pre-history at Cheddar Gorge. This is the skeleton of the cheddar man, from 9000BP - the oldest skeleton in Britain. It's in a case with astro-turf and fake flowers and Janis Joplin's 'Mercedes Benz' playing softly in the background. (entry by Miriam Cady)

11. Elephant feet umbrella stands, Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (entry by Jen Binnie)

12. Ceramic Artwork in Decorative Arts Museum Barcelona (entry by Jen Binnie)

13. Cake mould from Matsumoto Castle, Japan (entry by Jen Binnie)

14. Tiger Snuff Box - Leicestershire Regimental Museum, Newarke House (entry from Dr. Amy Barnes)

15. A boot tree – found at RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk after the US Airforce pulled out. Housed at the Cold War Museum, Rendlesham, near Woodbridge, Suffolk (entry by Dr. Amy Barnes)

Museobunny looks forward to your votes in the poll - see the sidebar.