The Comb-finned Squid is made of glass and the coating on top is paint. It was made by the Blaschkas’, who were a father and son team that created glass models. They made all their objects from assembling glass by creative flameworking, and experimented with traditional Bohemian glass-blowing techniques. They copied their animal and plant designs from textbooks, and sometimes even kept the living creatures in tanks to observe them. The function of these objects was twofold: it was used as scientific teaching aid, as the preserved creatures would lose their colour and their shape; and secondly, some were kept as home decorations due to their aesthetics. The Comb-finned Squid, however, was used as a scientific teaching aid, first acquired by the National History Museum, and then later transported to UCL in the early 1900s.

The Blaschka Glass Models can be seen as an emblem of the amalgamation between arts and sciences. It overcomes the dichotomy created between these areas of knowledge by bringing together artistic craftsmanship and scientific knowledge as one. These glass specimens are of historical value as they reflect the 19th century norms. They were outputs of a shift in thought and outlook in the scientific realm, illustrating the turn society took after Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution. The fact that the objects were used as a scientific teaching aid also reflects the progression of society towards a more scientific emphasis, since a lot of importance was placed on classifying species, understanding them and their evolution, overall having a scientific aim of understanding the world.

Previously the object has been discussion of a conference in 2006 – the ‘Dublin Blaschka Congress’. Diverse scholars of various disciplines were brought together in the study of Blaschka Glass Models, illustrating the interdisciplinarity of the models themselves. Their trajectory, or life biography, has gone through different spheres of value, being artistic creations and scientific teaching aids, to glass experimentation methods done by the son Rudolf Blaschka and finally placed in museums and still used by some as teaching tools. In the future, the object could potentially be used to do research in object-based learning and multisensory engagement.

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