Glass Sea Creatures

The glass sea creatures (alternately called the Blaschka sea creatures, glass marine invertebrates, and Blaschka invertebrate models) are works of glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. The spiritual predecessors of the Glass Flowers, the sea creatures were the output of the Blaschkas' successful mail-order business of supplying museums and private collectors around the world with sets of glass models of marine invertebrates.

Between 1863 and 1880, the Blaschkas – working in Dresden – executed at least 10,000 of these highly detailed glass models, representing some 700 different species.

A number of large collections of the models are held by museums and other academic institutions. Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology holds 430 items in its Blaschka Glass Invertebrate Collection and displays about 60 at any given time).Cornell University has about 570 items in its collection and has restored some 170 of these, with many others in its collection stored at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. Other models are held around the world, including at the Boston Museum of Science; Natural History Museum in London; Redpath Museum of McGill University in Montreal; Natural History Museum in Geneva; University College Dublin in Ireland;Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, England; and Aquarium-Museum in Liège, Belgium.

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