The Caledonian Mining Expedition Company: Taxidermie, Entomologie, Curiosités Naturelles (Deyrolle et Librarie Alain Brieux)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Taxidermie, Entomologie, Curiosités Naturelles (Deyrolle et Librarie Alain Brieux)

I consider Deyrolle (home of the most impressive collection of taxidermy I have ever seen) to be the most remarkable shop in the world. But in 2008, it was ravaged by fire. The news spread quickly and enthusiasts from all four corners of the globe immediately rallied around to donate vast amounts of their own private collections so as to bring the store back to its former glory. One French benefactress donated no less than 50 trays of exquisitely mounted butterflies to the collection.

I could have spent an entire day in the beautifully appointed, mint-green rooms, studying each animal and collection in wonderment, not to mention the numerous rippled glass cabinets filled to the brim with row upon row of drawers housing rare and marvelous specimens. Needless to say – had I been allowed to – I would have taken thousands of photos… but photography is strictly forbidden. What you see was taken surreptitiously.

Another remarkable find was the Librairie Alain Brieux. We had just had tea at Laduree, and what we then stumbled upon jolted me out of my sugar-coated, macaron-induced, coma. The Librairie Alain Brieux is an extraordinary, rare-book shop also playing host to a vast collection of medical antiques and obstetrical instruments not seen since Dead Ringers. Located in Saint Germain-des-Prés, it is one of those old places that one dreams of discovering. It had begun to snow outside, and the cosy, warm interior beckoned as a place of refuge. Books from floor to ceiling; a taxidermied crocodile suspended from the roof; and glass cabinets filled, as they would say in French, plein a craquer, with fascinating artifacts ranging from the macabre to the unimaginable. In addition, a fascinating photographic exhibition of freaks of nature (so to speak) including a man with elephantitis of the whatzits… Nothing, and I repeat nothing, was boiler plate.