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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Sunday, March 02, 2008

a rare rodent

You could hide him in your fist, but I wouldn't try it. He belongs to the Queen of England, whose great-grandmother Alexandra bought him in 1910.

He's pretty busy chewing some golden grass, though, so maybe he wouldn't notice if you gave him a cuddle. He's made of chalcedony (a semiprecious stone), has platinum whiskers, and sapphire eyes.

He's a Faberge dormouse. And he is cute.

The jeweler Carl Faberge made quite a number of delectable semiprecious critters for the Royal Family in the few years to either side of 1910. There's a great figurine of Edward VII's much beloved terrier Caesar, and some stories about the dog himself. There's a Border terrier, a cat, a .... snail?

2 comments:

The Lee County Clowder said...

And a very well done snail, we might add. The only puzzlement is: Why on earth would the Royal Family even want a stone snail?

It's not like you need a snail decoy to draw in a flock of snails.

Some one lose a bet or something?

curator said...

Yeah, I was really surprised to see the snail too...but you know, some people really think they're adorable. There was a little snake -- I didn't post him!