#museum object

[miamaimania]

"Fragment of the Face of a Queen" (ca. 1353–1336 B.C.) ◗ Egypt

[processzine-org]

SILT-12 / ANHYDRA — first iteration

Next planned Host (documenting for now):

Tardigrade-inspired. Hardy, alien, a survivor-of-void — not “cute”, not characterful. More like a sealed specimen that happens to be soft.

HOST CLASS: SILT-12 HOST INSTANCE: S12-000001 TYPE: LIMINAL FAUNA CODENAME: ANHYDRA INTERIOR: INACCESSIBLE ∅

TYPE: LIMINAL FAUNA

• FACETED SHELL (PEPAKURA) geometric/polyform body; armour-like crypt state; seam-lines as plates

• SEGMENTED SOFT-SHELL simplified organism anatomy; tactile but non-cute

Working notes:

the mouth aperture stays as a recessed ring — an opening that doesn’t explain itself.

seam logic does the heavy lifting: plates, joins, tension points.

close-ups matter: if it reads “manufactured” at macro scale, the fiction holds.

[grey-in-color]

Reitz Collection

[ilovemuseums]

So this blog has been a little (a lot) dead over my last years at uni, understandably. But now after graduating and getting a job I think I’ll post here again, after all my obsession with museums it still there... I’m actually studying an online course on working with museum collections and I’m really proud of how my portfolio for it is turning out. Here’s a picture I illustrated of how I’d recommend to pack my object: a grey seal skull!

[oodlenoodleroodle]

I found a new wife for Tumblr.

[ashmoleanmuseum]

Object of the Month:  Samurai Suit

Our object of the month for April is this ceremonial suit of armour for a Samurai from Japan.

This suit of Japanese armour was made during the peaceful Edo period (1600–1868) when samurai – members of the military nobility and officer caste – wore armour only on ceremonial occasions to show off their rank and wealth.

The helmet, made of 62 iron plates riveted together, carries the inscription that dates it to 1560, though the rest of the suit dates to the 18th century. It is crowned with a pair of imposing antler-like projections, originally worn to distinguish generals, but widely adopted later as a decorative feature. It is also adorned with a lacquered wooden crest in the form of a shishi lion dog.

The armour was given to Magdalen College by Prince Chichibu (1902–53), who had studied there in the 1920s, and is on long-term loan to the Ashmolean Museum.

Japan, 1560 (helmet), 1700s (armour). Iron, gilt soft metals, lacquer, leather, doeskins, crystal, mother-of-pearl, silk, wood and bear fur. See it on display in our Japan 1600-1850 gallery.

[nemfrog]

A hand with a lot of activity on and in it, including a mother nursing her baby and a couple of reptiles clinging. Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa. 1778.

[nationalwatchclockmuseum]

Every now and then we come across an object in our collection that, at some point, was either mislabeled, misnumbered or misidentified. This is an example we came across yesterday.

We believe it to be a late 18th century, French made movement. There are no identifiable maker’s marks on the movement, but the dial plate is marked with a “30″, a “1739″ and a simple image of a crown. The most interesting feature is the silver balance bridge depicting some classical scene or personage.

Can you help us? Can you make anything out of the script at the top of the plate? Can you identify the person or scene depicted on the balance bridge?