The Museum of Miniature Found Objects is delighted to announce the opening of the Professor van Helsing Wing. Yesterday evening the Wing's forthcoming exhibitions programme was celebrated in style at a Palm Court gala dinner, amid the popping of champagne corks and thunderous applause. First in this ground-breaking season is a recreation of the commercial breeding programme of the great Victorian entrepreneur Bartholomew Stott. Nineteenth-century Liverpool was home to an extraordinary project, carried out at Stott's Fantastical Emporium. With the domestic market rapidly developing an insatiable appetite for pets, the Emporium bred and supplied savage wild animals, but in miniature form, to meet this demand. These included wildebeest, polar bear, crocodile and many other species, none taller than 12 inches in height. It has been estimated that in 1857 two in every five households owned a Stott Fantastical, and many a suburban lawn was graced with a herd of exotic wildlife, the water buffalo proving especially popular.
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Found object:
= Christmas baubles: 6.07pm, Monday 5 September 2016, top deck of 341 bus, north London.
Dear Dr van Buren, I have loved your museum for many years, back to the days of your dearly beloved father. I'm sure my grandmother's aunt had a Stott. I saw a photo in an album somewhere. It was surely a Stott. She used to lie in wait in the garden and stab the local cats with her horn. The family tried to train her with bunches of rosemary but she took no notice until she'd finished with the cat. That was the problem with Stotts - and it finally killed the company - they were impossible to train. Yours ever, Edith Smith.
ReplyDeleteDear Ms Smith,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for such an interesting piece of family history. I'm intrigued that your great aunt took pleasure in hunting the local cats in the garden. However, if you could supply a little more on the Stott's Fantastical your family owned, and possible a copy of the photograph, we'd be most appreciative.
Yours sincerely,
Beryl van Buren (Mrs).