Wunderkammer Specimen Drawer.

Perhaps a curl of mica, a shard of frosted sea glass, a dried sprig of sea lavender, a chip of amethyst no larger than a fingernail. Twelve small wonders, each under its own glass, each named beneath in a fine copperplate hand: a very small museum for a wall or a desk.

The drawer is dark-stained wood with a brass pull, lined in faded green felt. Each compartment is filled and labeled individually rather than mass-assembled, so no two drawers hold quite the same twelve things, and the labels are handwritten in ink left to fade slightly on purpose, giving the piece the settled look of something inherited rather than bought last week.

It belongs to the wunderkammer tradition of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when European scholars and collectors filled whole rooms with naturalia and artificialia side by side, believing a well-stocked cabinet could stand in for the whole of creation. This is that impulse scaled down to fit above a desk.

Details

• Twelve glassed compartments, one object in each
• Dark-stained wood, brass pull, green felt lining
• Hand-labeled in copperplate; contents vary from drawer to drawer

How to use

Hang it flat where the afternoon light catches the glass, or keep it on a shelf or table for close inspection.

A gift for the person who already owns one strange thing and clearly wants twelve more.