An inhabitant of the glass aquarium

This is a hand-made glass model of a colonial Hydroid. It is the work of father and son Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939) who ran a small workshop in Dresden, Germany. Initially they made costume jewellery and glass eyes for taxidermists and the blind. However, about 1863 they started to make exquisite glass models of marine invertebrates and these soon became their main business. At their height they had salesmen working across Europe and North America and as far afield as Japan and India. By 1888 the Blaschka sales catalogue listed over 700 different models. Sea creatures are extremely difficult to preserve in their natural colourful state and thus the lifelike models were in great demand by museums and private collectors. The firm went on to make an extensive range of glass models of plants but when Rudolf died in 1939 there was no one to carry on the business and production ceased. This model is one of over 40 that are on display in the Zoology Museum at The University of Aberdeen.

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