The mysteries of museums

Despite having been working in and around museums for ten years now, so far at least, I have not ceased to be amazed at what you can find lying around in obscure corners, backrooms, cellars, cupboards and storage spaces. It can often be worthwhile a quick rummage as you might well find something interesting and occasionally even important that others have overlooked or simply didn’t know was there. Mostly it’s just a bit of academic curiosity as with this little pile of mammal and bird bits that I found in Karlsruhe. OK, nothing too fantastic to get excited about in that lot but with them was something I never though I would see in a museum, or perhaps to be more precise, I had never conceived could exist so wouldn’t think to imagine that I would find it in a museum. I found this:

Yes, a badger with a little lamp and a halberd. The mind boggles sometimes, it really does. By the way the lap lights up when you plug it in, though I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.