Vom Einräumen der Erkenntnis

Duplicates under the hammer: natural-history auctions in Berlin's early nineteenth-century collection landscape

“…89 Throughout European collections, in place of touch and talk came locked glass repositories, descriptive labels intended to render the objects self-explanatory, and guards ready to reprimand visitors to silence. 90 In most respects, the Berlin Zoological Museum followed this trend, allowing the public to enter the collection twice weekly free of charge, where cabinets outfitted with clear panes and object labels displaying specimens' names, taxonomic rank and geographic origin would allow for all collection items to be 'perfectly identifiable without direct handling'. 91 But when Lichtenstein held auctions in the museum, the space transformed into an event that centred around talk of specimen names and values and ultimately entailed specimens leaving not only their glass enclosures, but the museum itself.…”