As Europeans sent ships to trade with distant parts of the world, seamen & traders brought back exotic curiosities: porcelain, nature specimens, cultural artifacts & furniture, archeological treasures, paintings of foreign scenes. Private collectors might open their studios for public viewing and some evolved into sophisticated major museums. These early collection had a jumbled but often charming mixture of wonders where whole rooms became a kind of display cabinet. Not many examples of how early curiosity cabinets appeared still exist, but we index a few examples on this page. |
