Cabinet of Curiosities
In Beatrix Potter’s delightful children’s book, (1904), a pair of rebellious rodents vandalise a dolls’ house. They discover a spread of miniature dolls’ house food made from plaster, glued to tiny plates. Potter’s charming illustrations depict ‘two red lobsters and a ham, a fish, a pudding, and some pears and oranges. They would not come off the plates, but they were extremely beautiful.’ Frustrated by their inedibility, the mice smash them to smithereens.
