Photos | Pubs and parties: A Swiss frog’s life in 19th century vignettes
Updated On Nov 09, 2018 10:13 AM IST
Stuffed frogs are pictured at the school, at the barbers, as soldiers in the army, as well as engaged in a raucous game of cards at a miniature table; cigarettes carefully perched from their lips. Amphibian hobbyist Francois Perrier’s strange tableaus of life in the Swiss countryside created after his retirement from Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces, all using these extraordinary frogs collected between the years 1848 and 1860, lend visitors a satirical, if at times confusing look into life of this very particular era.
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Updated on Nov 09, 2018 10:13 AM IST
Frogs playing pool, pictured at the Frog Museum, a collection of 108 stuffed frogs in scenes portraying everyday life in the 19th-century, in Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland. The museum is a collection of 150-year-old satirical tableaus of domestic life in the 19th century—all involving stuffed frogs. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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Updated on Nov 09, 2018 10:13 AM IST
A diorama of frogs attending school. This bizarre concept was first curated by Francois Perrier, a former Napoleonic Guard officer who harboured a special interest in tailless amphibians, in the 1850s. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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A game of cards between friends. Perrier began collecting frogs on his walks across the countryside and would gut them, filling the sacks with sand before posing them in these dioramas replicating everyday life. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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Among the more bizarre exhibits in this one of a kind collection is that of a frog inexplicably ‘riding’ on the back of a taxidermy squirrel –certainly a surreal experience even if by the standards of 19th century Switzerland. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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A frog writes documents at a notary. The museum also boasts 200 lamps used by the Swiss railways, as well as a collection of armaments and other items from the town’s medieval history. The frog displays occupy just one room of the 15th century stately home turned museum but have become synonymous with it. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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Frogs playing a family scene. What’s equally fascinating is the obviously painstaking detail Perrier put into the details of each scene, complete with miniature furniture and accoutrements. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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Ravenous frogs at a family diner. Most of the museum’s other collections were privately owned previously and were donated in the early part of the 20th century and surprisingly have no connection to these dioramas except perhaps serving as a more traditional draw to the location. (Denis Balibouse / REUTERS)
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Updated on Nov 09, 2018 10:13 AM IST