In a Glass of their Own

42 / October-November 2017 / ve

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www.vintagexplorer.co.uk

19/09/2017 10:35

In a glass of their own

mantiques

If you like it, you should put a dome on it. Alan Ashby has a fondness for glass domes and their decorative appeal in the modern home THE FINEST Victorian home would not have been complete without a glass dome or two (or more) in its parlour. Practical as well as decorative they housed almost anything imaginable, including flowers or fruit made from paper, wax, silk or shells.

Each dome would have a wooden base with little bun feet and most often these bases were painted a shiny black. A circular groove

Left: A shoal of baby pufferfish on stands.

Above: The skull of a muntjac. Above right: A crab-eating monkey skull on an engraved mahogany block

was cut into the wood for the dome to rest on and a braid or cord was wound around the rim of the glass to protect it. Genuine antique domes will always have these components although the braid or cord is very often missing.

I love them and my own modest collection began as a sideline to my recent decision to deal in taxidermy. I have found that smaller items are often fragile and difficult to display – the monkey skull shown here being a good example. When I added a dome and an engraved mahogany block it not only looked better, but had added protection. Now the skull’s many nooks and crannies no longer need cleaning, just a quick wipe of the glass and hey presto, it’s good to go. Those Victorians were no fools!

When I bought an inexpensive, but charming taxidermy squirrel and kingfisher sharing a branch, I couldn’t find a big enough dome within my budget to display them under, so instead I used an old bell jar. Although made for the purpose of aiding the gardener, this object has certainly moved beyond its original function and looks great in its new role.

I’ve continued to buy domes when they are the right price, some with contents, and plenty without, some old, some not so old, but I always prefer antique or at least second hand

ones with signs of age. The beauty is that they come in all shapes and sizes and it’s almost as much fun sourcing the right size dome as it is finding the best piece to go in it!

However, as a beginner I’ve already fallen into the most common trap of buying a nice base, thinking that very soon I’ll find the perfect glass dome to fit it, or exactly the opposite; I buy the dome thinking “Great all I need now is to find a base that fits this. How hard can that be?” Alas, needless to say, I still have most of those baseless domes, and more than half a dozen domeless bases...

But what should you display in them? Your most treasured objects of course. It really doesn’t matter what, as long as you love them.

I’ve put bats, small birds, skulls and various marine creatures in mine. Also fossils, feathers and minerals look good; a dome inside a dome, such as a paperweight or a jar of dolls heads can look great, and that prosthetic hand you’ve had hanging around for ages can be a real talking point... let your imagination run riot, the possibilities are endless.ve www.facebook.com/Cabskin-Taxidermy

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