An ocean of glass

It is truly amazing that the meticulous work of a father/son team, more than 150 years ago, can still appear to be contemporary. Someone who has never heard of these perfect 19th century models of glass could easily be fooled into thinking that they are modern solutions for the sea-life displays of museums. I certainly was, and I couldn’t be happier to realize that surprises can still await me at one of Curious Expeditions’ favorite places in the world, a natural history museum.

Leopold Blaschka was fascinated with the popular new field of natural history, and took this fascination to his glassmaking studio. With an illustrated natural history book by his side, he began to fashion delicate models of flowers out of glass. These first models were so extraordinarily beautiful and unique, they quickly developed a reputation, and Leopold began to receive commissions. His first commission was 100 glass models of an aristocrat’s orchid collection.

It was around this time that natural history museums truly began to bloom all over the world. And thus began a long career of making models of the difficult to taxidermy sea-life for museums. Eventually, Leopold’s son, Rudolf, joined him in the workshop, where they worked together without assistants.

At first, the sea-life was modeled on illustrations and memories of seeing the creatures in the wild, but as the pair became wealthier, they were able to work from live specimens, kept in an aquarium in their home. The catalogue of their work consists of over 700 pieces.

the ocean of glass flickr photos are stunning