Éditions Baleine, Paris

A publisher that uses photos of the waxes from the Spitzner Collection on all its book covers, sells postcards of the Cabaret du Néant, and has made veritable tatty cabinet of curiosities out its front window? Yes, please!

If you are in Paris, I highly recommend you check it out; you will find it at 11 rue Muller, 75018, on the way up the hill to Sacre Coeur. You can find out more here.

Dream Shop: Nautilus Antiques, Modena, Italy

Above are a few photos from Evan and I's recent pilgrimage (and, in Evan's case, epic buying trip) to the wonderful Nautilus Antiques of Modena, Italy. This shop--which had us enrapt for over an hour-- felt a bit like what I imagine Obscura Antiques might look like if it had easy access to the European antiquities such as skull reliquaries, wunderkammer trinkets, ancient taxidermy, and medical museum discards.

In the top image, you can see my travel companion Evan Michelson posing with Alessandro Molinengo, co-owner of Nautilus and recent guest poster to this blog (post 1, post 2); the second image down features Fausto Gazzi, his business partner. Both are posing with a favorite artifact for sale in the shop; in Alessandro's case, a taxidermied freak pig preparation and, in Fausto's case, a wax mannequin head by, in his own words, "the Michelangelo of mannequins" Pierre Himans. All other images are installation shots of the shop.

You can find out more about Nautilus by clicking here; you can "like" the shop on Facebook by clicking here. The shop is open on Saturdays from 3 until 7 PM or by appointment, and is located at via Cesare Battisti 60 in Modena, Italy.

All images are my own. You can see more images by clicking here; Click on image to see larger, more detailed version.

Introducing the Morbid Anatomy Bookstore!

Quite often, especially during the holiday season, I receive emails from Morbid Anatomy readers soliciting book recommendations for their families, friends, and loved ones. To ease this recommendation process, I have recently launched The Morbid Anatomy Bookstore, which contains all of my favorite, Morbid Anatomy-ish books, available for immediate purchase from Amazon.com. All proceeds from sales go to the purchase of additional material for The Morbid Anatomy Library, which is open to the public by appointment in Brooklyn, New York.

On a related note: if any of you out there are feeling an aimless sense of philanthropy this year, perhaps you might like to contribute to the growth of the Morbid Anatomy Library! To this end, I have created a Morbid Anatomy Library Wishlist, where you can see what important books are still missing from the collection and, if so inclined, donate them to or purchase them for the library.

The goal of the Morbid Anatomy library is to serve researchers, artists, and the curious public as a collection of books, scholarly articles, and artifacts related to medical museums, artistic anatomy, cabinets of curiosity, collectors and collecting, memorial practices, art/science, and mortality studies, presented in an environment conducive to the contemplation of such matters. Your donations will help fill the gaps in the collection, and help the MA Library serve the community even better. You will also receive an attractive donor's card for your trouble! Also, if you desire to make donations of the artifactual kind, or any books or objects not found on this list, that's great too! You can contact us at morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

Click here to visit the online Morbid Anatomy Bookstore (and be sure to page through to the end; there are 15 pages thus far!). Click here to check out the Morbid Anatomy Library wishlist. As mentioned, the Morbid Anatomy Library is open to the public by appointment; if you wish to visit the library, you can make an appointment by emailing morbidanatomy@gmail.com; You can find out more about the library by clicking here. And, if you feel that there is an important book missing from any of my lists, I would love to hear from you at the above email!

Image: by Eric Harvey Brown for Time Out New York

Librairie Alain Brieux, Paris, France

When in Paris last week, I stumbled upon the wonderful Librairie Alain Brieux (mentioned in this previous post). This antique store/rare book shop had a number of extraordinary (if out my price range) artifacts for sale, including, to name just a few: a 1/2 length wax anatomical Venus in a glass case (pictured second from the top); anatomical models rendered in wax and paper-mâché; various skeletal bits; an original poster advertising a popular anatomical museum (5th from the top); medical instruments; rare (and remarkably intact!) optical toy kits; and a wide array of antique medical books with astounding illustrations, which the shopkeeper, who kindly allowed me to take photographs, enthusiastically displayed for me.

Those of you unable to make it to Paris to check out this shop are in luck; Librairie Alain Brieux and some of their best merchandise are coming to New York City for the Antiquarian Book Fair, which will run from April 3-5th at the The Park Avenue Armory. I am promised they will have some really great stuff with them; I, for one, plan to go and check it out!

You can find out more about the book fair (where Alain Brieux will exhibiting in booth B5) by clicking here. To see more photos cataloging the many and various wonders of this shop, click here. You can check out their still-under-construction website, where you an also download PDFs of their catalogs, by clicking here.

The Fight to Save Paris' Deyrolle, Paris' Own Naturalia Shop cum Natural History Museum

There is a wonderful story in the New York Times about the famous Deyrolle of Paris--likened to a natural history museum where one could buy nearly everything--and the aftermath of its recent destruction by fire.

Deyrolle, founded in 1831 by well-known entomologist Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, has for over a century been a Parisian institution for locals and tourists alike. Part taxidermy shop and part museum, Deyrolle displayed its epic taxidermy, fossils, butterfly collection, shadow boxes and bell jars in Victorian, wood-cased splendor. Last February, a fire sparked by a short circuit destroyed 90% of the collection.

Impressively, the many fans of Deyrolle have gone to great lengths to save the institution and help restore it to former greatness. A Mr. de Broglie has created a "Friends of Deyrolle" organization to solicit donations of stuffed animals and other naturalia from private and public collections. As Mr. de Broglie explaiend, “Deyrolle was the place in Paris you’d first come as a child, then later bring your friends, then your fiancée, then your own children and your grandchildren. How could people close their eyes and let it disappear? It would have been impossible.”

Other measures, public and private, have been put into effect. Provincial French museums are being contacted in search of old wooden cases, fashion house Hermes reissued a limited-edition scarf to benefit Deyrolle, and many individuals have donated treasured items from their own collection--some of which were even objects purchased at Deyrolle to begin with. The publishing house Gallimard released a a history of Deyrolle with a preface by French novelist Pierre Assouline whose sales would benefit Deyrolle, and Christie's auction house held an auction hosted by the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature which raised $333,000 by auctioning off artworks by artists such as Jan Fabre and Mark Dion. The public has come together, in a touching and effective way, to save and restore this threatened Parisian institution.

To read more about it, see the original article. To see more images, visit the slideshow on the New York Times website.

Thanks to Jim and Eric for sending this along!

All images from the New York Times Slideshow. Top image is pre-fire, bottom is post-fire.

Obscura Antiques and Oddities, NYC

Long before Cabinets of Curiosity made their way to Barney's, Damien Hirst unveiled his diamond-encrusted skull, and Marilyn Manson made news for his compulsive collecting of dead children, there was Obscura Antiques and Oddities. Less a store than a museum you can shop at, Obscura, located in the East Village, is, by far, my favorite shop in New York City.

Stock varies, but on a given day, here are some things you're likely to come across: anatomical models, memorial photographs, medical art prints, taxedermied pets, shadow boxes, fraternal organization memorabilia, prosthetic limbs, victorian mourning jewelry, magic lantern slides, collections of pinned insects, funeraral ephemera, stereoscopopic cards, carnival castoffs, two headed fetal pigs, a jar of worms, corsets, top hats, glass fronted cabinets, victorian vitrines ... the list goes on. Don't be intimidated by their celebrity clientele (they feed the habits of The Sedarises and Chloë Sevigny, among others) or the uber-hip east-village customers you might see within; the proprietors are very friendly and extremely knowledgable, and you'll probably leave knowing something you didn't know before. See above photos for details of merchandise over the past few years.