Historical Wunderkammern

Cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammern) were encyclopedic collections whose categorical boundaries were, in renaissance Europe yet to be defined. The term cabinet originally was described as room rather than a piece of furniture. Within these cabinets, which first appeared in the mid-sixteenth century around Central and Western Europe, the objects that could be found belonged to categories such as natural history, geology, ethnography, archeology, religion, science and art.

From several historical references and descriptions items that would be found within a Wunderkammer included preserved animals, horns, tusks, minerals, as well as other types of equally fascinating man-made objects such as sculptures wondrously old, wondrously fine or wondrously small; clockwork automata; ethnographic specimens from exotic locations. Often a cabinet of curiosities would contain a mix of fact and fiction, including apparently mythical creatures, and alchemical artifacts.