Text originally published in A Children’s Guide to Splendour by Isaac du Toit and Megan du Toit (2019).
The Splendour exhibition covers a period of time called "the age of discovery", when many lands previously unknown to Europeans were "discovered" or explored including America, Australia and New Zealand. People were very interested in the world around them and would collect and display exotic objects and curiosities in a cabinet like this one on display.
Excellent craftsmanship, rare materials, and dark Japanese lacquer give this cabinet an exotic and eyecatching presence. A collector would display it like this, with the doors open.
The term cabinet originally described a whole room of
collections rather than a single piece of furniture. They
were limited to the very rich who could afford to create
and maintain them. Many monarchs developed large
collections. They showed the interests of their owners
but were also a bit of a status symbol and showing your
collection was a form of entertainment.
The cabinets of curiosities would often show off quite different objects - a bit like going into Te Papa's "Golden Days" on level 4.
Cabinets of Curiosities were like the first museums. In fact, the British Museum is founded on the Cabinet of Curiosities of a man called Hans Sloane (1660-1753) who bequeathed his collection of over 71,000 books, antiquities and natural specimens to the British nation in 1753 (he had acquired the collections of lots of other collectors). Many of the objects and paintings on show in Splendour were also gifted (to Te Papa).
Excellent craftsmanship, rare materials, and dark Japanese lacquer give this cabinet an exotic and eyecatching presence. A collector would display it like this, with the doors open.
The term cabinet originally described a whole room of
collections rather than a single piece of furniture. They
were limited to the very rich who could afford to create
and maintain them. Many monarchs developed large
collections. They showed the interests of their owners
but were also a bit of a status symbol and showing your
collection was a form of entertainment.The cabinets of curiosities would often show off quite different objects - a bit like going into Te Papa's "Golden Days" on level 4.
Cabinets of Curiosities were like the first museums. In fact, the British Museum is founded on the Cabinet of Curiosities of a man called Hans Sloane (1660-1753) who bequeathed his collection of over 71,000 books, antiquities and natural specimens to the British nation in 1753 (he had acquired the collections of lots of other collectors). Many of the objects and paintings on show in Splendour were also gifted (to Te Papa).
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