Post by biscuit153 on Dec 24, 2021 13:28:05 GMT -8
Hello all, I'm hoping to get some help in solving a mystery. Can anyone recognize the handwriting on these labels or the details of my story below to tell me who might have put this display together? Also, can anyone help identify the specimen labelled "Danaus hecale"?
Some backstory for clues: I purchased 3 shadowboxes in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Quebec City, QC, CA at a store called "Geomania". I was a young child at that time. I have 3 displays all bearing the same handwriting on the labels. The one pictured is my favorite. Something about the arrangement of it tells me that whoever made it was trying to communicate their appreciation for mimicry and for the beauty of even "plain" looking specimens. For years, I have wondered who put this together. So fascinated was I by this frame that on subsequent trips to visit family in Quebec, having saved my money over the year or two since my last visit, I would return to the store to purchase another display. Somewhere in the early 1990's as I recall, the store closed. I was disappointed as I could not find any other displays by this person. And then as if by magic, I was in a shopping mall there and there was a small kiosk selling various insect displays. To my shock, this vendor had several shadowbox displays featuring the same labelling and handwriting. I asked the man selling them where he obtained them. He told me that they were done by a man who had since returned home to France. I suspect that these displays were perhaps those remaining from when the store where they were originally being sold had closed.
I am hoping that someone will recognize the handwriting or the story and clue me in to who this person was.
Thanks all, and Merry Christmas
Andrew
Some backstory for clues: I purchased 3 shadowboxes in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Quebec City, QC, CA at a store called "Geomania". I was a young child at that time. I have 3 displays all bearing the same handwriting on the labels. The one pictured is my favorite. Something about the arrangement of it tells me that whoever made it was trying to communicate their appreciation for mimicry and for the beauty of even "plain" looking specimens. For years, I have wondered who put this together. So fascinated was I by this frame that on subsequent trips to visit family in Quebec, having saved my money over the year or two since my last visit, I would return to the store to purchase another display. Somewhere in the early 1990's as I recall, the store closed. I was disappointed as I could not find any other displays by this person. And then as if by magic, I was in a shopping mall there and there was a small kiosk selling various insect displays. To my shock, this vendor had several shadowbox displays featuring the same labelling and handwriting. I asked the man selling them where he obtained them. He told me that they were done by a man who had since returned home to France. I suspect that these displays were perhaps those remaining from when the store where they were originally being sold had closed.
I am hoping that someone will recognize the handwriting or the story and clue me in to who this person was.
Thanks all, and Merry Christmas
Andrew
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