Friday Crab Blogging (late)

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Once again our wide ranging correspondents (from here and here)have uncovered specimens of a both historic and cultural interest.

In the first instance, we have samples from that emporium of renown, Harrods. One sincerely hopes that all the crustaceans on offer there are not quite so crunchy. In particular, since rock crabs "...are aggressive monsters that look like harmless rocks while they are sleeping, and wake up and attack unsuspecting players that pass by," caveat emptor.

(Noted in passing: the English Pound, that funny letter "L," seems to have suffered a rather severe devaluation if one has to fork out 6,000 of them for one measly crab.)

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Next we have a rather interesting addition also in the rather petrified genre.

One feels a little like Monsieur Holmes (excuse me, Poirot) when trying to dissect, or otherwise disassemble this picture. Firstly, this crab appears to be surrounded by jewelery or similar artifacts. There is, of course, the watch. Close attention shows that whilst the minute hand is on the "nine" the hour hand has just passed the "four." Clearly this is not Switzerland. A clue to the crab's locale, in addition to the funny L, can be found in the wording pasted atop the watch: "Please remove plastic wedge from winder." In this case, "wedge" is the clue. This also indicates that the watch is upside down so, just maybe, it is Switzerland. (Also used with "wood," as in Wedgewood.) The watch is certainly new since it is on a backing in addition to the aforementioned tape. This suggests that this is not someone's upper chest drawer, but in an emporium. We strongly doubt it is Harrod's.

It is unclear what the object above the watch is. Perhaps a bracelet of pewter? (This brings up the question of why more habitues of ale houses didn't get lead poisoning, but we will let that go for now.) The object immediately above the crab appears to be a ornamented metal container, on top of which is a key? with a tag attached. Very interesting.

Finally, the crab. This appears to be of porcelain. This is of interest because the name porcelain derives from the Italian for a cowry shell, another marine animal. Since porcelain was not available in Europe before the 18th century (a good book to read about the European discovery of porcelain is Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story), this is more evidence of a contemporary venue.

In any case, the crab appears to be of Art Deco design. The claws are attached to the main body and I suspect that it is also some type of jewelry case since it almost appears in relief. This then suggests that these objects are found in the local antique or second hand store.

It is a nice crab.

Here is a contribution from Lindsey:

That black thing is a net (little does she know that crabs are not caught in nets) and the crab is wearing glasses because, of course, so does Dr. C.!