DON JUAN PEDROS WUNDERKAMMER
A tribute to an astonishing and quirky collection, and to its tireless curator, Hans Peter Straumann, alias Juan Pedro. Behind an unassuming garage door in Liestal, amazed visitors are granted glimpses into unknown worlds: in Juan Pedro’s cabinet of curiosities, a panopticon of objects from different countries and eras is displayed—items collected by the curator during his numerous research and leisure journeys across the globe. Hidden within is an inexhaustible reservoir of stories, ranging from private family history in Basel-Landschaft to the missionary era in Cameroon, and the many natural history expeditions between the North and South Poles.
The inflated skin of the porcupinefish Diodon hystrix, brought home from a market in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966 aboard the passenger ship General Mangin.
A splendid marmot, the victim of an Italian speedster on the Nufenen Pass road, expertly taxidermied by a Jura-based taxidermist and owner of the Musée Arche de Noé.
Ovomaltine tin by Dr. Wander with instructions for use in three national languages; from the village shop in Reigoldswil.
A practical container for eight batteries, allowing the Butoba portable tape recorder to operate in the field, far from any power supply, for example to record a speech by the Bali chief to his subjects in Mungaka during the annual Lela festival.
The foot of an elephant, hollow, circa 1900, an heirloom from missionary Gantenbein from the French-speaking part of Cameroon.
Leg bone of an elephant killed by locals in the rainforest region of Mamfe, shipped to Basel in 1966 at mission expense in a barrel, duty-free.
The elegantly curved horn of an antelope from the Ndiop Plain, Cameroon.
Badge mount set with 12 artificial beetles.
A large number of real sugar, rove, and carpet beetles, collected in Cameroon and prepared in Basel with cyanide, in 1966 readily available at the Goldene Apotheke Basel.
Seven brass lizards from Foumban, cast using the lost-wax technique.
The skull of a polar bear from Greenland, imported in 2007 as a substitute for a narwhal tusk.