Cranfield's Curiosity Package

When I discovered that there was a man on instagram called James Cranfield to whom you could send money in return for a box of random taxidermy I thought it was hilarious. The idea is that you pay what you can afford and receive curiosities to at least that value. So on Christmas morning my lucky boyfriend received Cranfield's Curiosity Package.

I wasn't that keen on having dead animals on my mantelpiece so I asked James if he could stick to bugs and fossils, but other than that the contents of the package were a surprise to me too. 

First out of the box was my favourite curiosity: a beautiful Garden Tiger Moth in a wooden case.

Next was another insect, this time a Jewel beetle set in acrylic:

 The remaining couple of items were slightly less high-brow. If you can guess what this is you probably know too much.

It's a racoon penis bone. Just what every man wants for Christmas from their significant other!

And finally......

Yes, that's a poo. Or to give it its official name: Coprolite. It's fossilised faeces from Madagascar. This poo was probably produced by a turtle and is estimated to be 50 million years old! Delicious.

Thankfully Adam shares my sense of humour and was delighted with his Curiosity Package and we now have our own natural history collection.