Pharmacy Style, III

An old west apothecary, from Mr. Sable on Flickr.

Pharmacy Style, part II

Victorian Pharmacy is a new BBC series recreating the work of an actual Victorian Pharmacy (minus the opium and arsenic, of course).

Here's a video with great shots of the interior.

Thanks to Robert Williams Hitchin for pointing this out.

Pharmacy Style, part I

I seem to know two young people studying to be pharmacists, and two inspirational images of pharmacy inspired interiors came across my desk recently -- I thought budding pharmacists would be as interested in old fashioned, romantic, pharmacy inspired living as I am in difference engines and abacuses.

Here's the first -- the creative workspace of Elizabeth Maxson, featured in Where Women Create, May 2010. She uses a painted drug store cabinet to hold all of her supplies (above).


I love this dispensing decanter -- Ben thinks we ought to use a collection of these to set up a bar!

An old drugstore sign... with calipers hanging off of it!

Victorian Women Naturalists, enshrined in wallpaper

Shall we continue on the theme of Victorian women scientists for a moment?

Allison sent me to the wallpaper collection by Grow House Grow based on Victorian women naturalists:

And while discoveries by men such as Darwin and Newton have made them household names, there are countless others whose scholarly work has been lost, forgotten or even usurped by other intellectuals. Our Spring 2010 wallpaper line highlights three such individuals, all of whom are women, whose phenomenal academic stories have fallen between the cracks of history.

As female scientists in the nineteenth century, these women faced an oxymoronic distinction that their male counterparts eluded. Sexist barriers discouraged most young girls from the pursuit of an intellectual calling, yet our subjects persevered by challenging the status quo and developing their own route to recognized scholastic excellence. Each woman was largely self taught, and relied almost entirely on an innate passion for her respective field--something that makes their achievements all the more remarkable. Our bonnet is off to these unsung scientific heroines!

Ms. Treat, whose love of carnivorous botanicals influenced Darwin's work, has a luscious wall of Pitcher Plants and mischievous Venus Flytraps (and perhaps an ant or two).

Ms. Ward, who developed her passion for microscopy by magnifying and drawing bugs, blends late-Georgian silhouettes with a curious menagerie of over-sized insects.

Mme. Jeanne, a French dressmaker-cum-Sicilian naturalist (and who invented the world's first aquarium), has her love of the sea reflected in an elegant, ascending mollusk scallop.

Vintage Printables

Vintage Printables is an incredible collection of out of copyright images, mostly scientific, perfect for printing and framing or using in your craft projects.

Partial Eclipse of the Moon

The images are extensively categorized and subcategorized, so you can easily find everything from magicians to surgical equipment; imperial Russian playing cards to scientific botanical prints.




You can even browse them sorted by color.

The proprietor will even link to your etsy store or website if you use the images in a project -- which means the rest of us can find wonderful things made with all of these images!

Erin Martin Design

Jaime introduced me to the delightful work of Erin Martin Design. Here's the most steampunk of her designs.

I love the quirkiness of using wall mounted reading lamps to light a sink.

I think these images are some for a radio-crystallography -- but maybe one of you know better?

Nice juxtaposition of industrial lighting with traditional handwriting.

I *love* the door on this bathroom.

Dark. Moody. Train.

Would love to know who made this coffeetable with an octopus on it.

Antique Astronomy Chart...

with an even older celestial tool in front of it...

Biological Things at the Evolution Store

I stumbled across The Evolution Store, a source of reasonably priced biological items, and though you might be interested. Here's a sample of what they have...


Pretty botanical prints.
Ben's from rice growing country, so this one appealed to me -- not to mention the colors are great.
The colors here are so great -- I'd order the poster, and then build a room around it.
Cherries -- these could work for so many different types of rooms -- kitchens, rooms with a lot of red and black, even for a different twist on cherry blossoms in a room with a lot of Asian elements.


Lots of interesting marble coasters.






Skeletons!



And last but not least, fossils!

Microscopes, Aged and Brass

Allen Wissner has been collecting antique brass microscopes for three decades.

His site -- where he shares his extensive collection with the hope that readers will discover him and support his habit by selling him more -- is filled with many different models and uses.

There are articles about antique microscopes...an index by country of origin...he even branches out in microspectroscopes.

Eating on Atoms

It turns out scientific themed housewares is not a new idea. I found these based on X-ray cccrystallography from the 1950s on An Aesthete's Lament. Clockwise from top left they are Peter Wall's Beryl 8.9 plates for Wedgwood, Hazel Thrumpston and Peter Cave's Aluminum Hydroxide plate for E Brain and Co, and Thrumpston's Festival plate for RH and SL Plant.

In 2008 the Wellcome Collection featured an exhibit called From Atoms to Patterns, and included the following history in it's press release:

The 1951 Festival of Britain provided an extraordinary platform for British ingenuity and creativity in science and the arts. One of the boldest initiatives within the Festival was the Festival Pattern Group, which brought together adventurous manufacturers and forward-looking crystallographers (scientists who analyse atomic structures by taking X-ray photographs of crystalline materials) to create a collection of quirky and influential furnishing designs.

Inspired by the intricate patterns of crystal structures, leading Cambridge crystallographer Dr Helen Megaw came up with the novel idea of using them for textiles. As scientific consultant to the Festival Pattern Group, she collated crystal structure diagrams from eminent colleagues and ensured that they were interpreted in an accurate and authentic way. Spearheaded by the Council of Industrial Design, the Festival Pattern Group enlisted the manufacturers, vetted the designs and organised special displays at the Festival of Britain - notably in the Regatta Restaurant on the South Bank, which was decorated with crystal structure-patterned furnishings, and the Exhibition of Science at South Kensington.

The 2008 exhibit of these works included:

- Rayon dress fabrics and nitrocellulose-coated ‘leathercloth’ printed with the molecular structure of haemoglobin

- Tie silks woven with ball-and-spoke atomic structures of chalk and china clay

- Plastic laminates and wallpapers adorned with intricate insulin motifs

- Lace embroidered with the crystal structures of beryl (emerald) and aluminium hydroxide (hydrargillite)

- Carpets emblazoned with patterns derived from the chemical compound resorcinol

- Relief-patterned window glass evoking the atomic structure of the mineral apophyllite

- Fluid abstract-patterned curtains based on diagrams of afwillite, a hydrated calcium silicate formed during the setting of cement

Two good reviews (with more pictures) of the exhibit are at frieze and the Nature Network. The book about the exhibit is out of print, but you may be able to find a copy if you search around: From Atoms to Patterns: Crystal Structure Designs from the 1951 Festival of Britain

Child Development Lab

This is an awesome concept for a nursery -- the execution is a bit too modern for my taste, but I love all the science. Parents Paul and Pam Costa created it for their son Edison (!!).


Backlit lab galssware, exposed edison bulb, and a "formulaic" blackboard.

And a vintage Cray supercomputer for seating!

via Coochicoos

More Bathrooms from the Cabinet of Curiosities

Rebecca just sent me this link to some (more!) bathrooms decoupaged from Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.


Stone and his team prep the walls as if hanging wallpaper. They attach the pages with wallpaper paste and let them dry for a couple of days before applying a polyurethane coat, preferably in a matte finish.


from the Houston Chronicle: Papering walls with pages from the past

Edna W Lawrence Nature Lab at RISD

I think you'll like this video of the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Pictorial Webster's

My friend Kara alerted me to the imminent publication of Pictorial Webster's


I hate to just shill the publisher's pitch, but...

Pictorial Webster's -- Featuring over 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century, this chunky volume is an irresistible treasure trove for art lovers, designers, and anyone with an interest in visual history. Meticulously cleaned and restored by fine-press bookmaker Johnny Carrera, the engravings in Pictorial Webster's have been compiled into an alluring and unusual visual reference guide for the modern day. Images range from the entirely mysterious to the classically iconic. From Acorns to Zebras, Bell Jars to Velocipedes, these alphabetically arranged archetypes and curiosities create enigmatic juxtapositions and illustrate the items deemed important to the Victorian mind. Sure to inspire and delight, Pictorial Webster's is at once a fascinating historical record and a stunning jewel of a book.


They are giving away a very fancy leather hand-bound edition, too!


Buy Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities at Amazon (for 34% off -- only $23.10). There's also a Pictorial Webster's Stamp Set and Pictorial Webster's Wall Cards.

Via Junior Society.

Eva's Steampunk Naturalist Living Room

Eva posted a link to pictures of her living room in the comments to Decorating the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, and I thought you all might be interested in seeing what she's done.

Apothecary jars + apothecary style media cabinet -- it's obvious when someone else does it, isn't it?

I love the fern leaf taking up the length of the shorter apothecary jar.

My husban Ben has been wanting an old typewriter -- Eva found this one for $15 at a junk store! She's planning on filling the jars with old keys and gears.

Very Victorian style botanical prints.

My take-aways: Apothecary jars are key to the "Victorian Naturalist Laboratory" look. (And there have been so many in stores over the last couple of years they are starting to show up in thrift stores -- I scored a smaller pedestal one just yesterday.) Uncluttered is good (a constant tension in steampunk decor). I do think the room would benefit from a bit more organized clutter on the walls -- maybe some Haeckel prints to play up the unsweet side of our naturalist?

See her whole set of pictures, including before and afters, here.

What would you fill apothecary jars with?