It’s the perennial, cliched holiday dilemma: What do you get the person who has everything? Well, how about a skunk skull? Or a stuffed baby duckling? Perhaps a glinting beetle trapped in amber? For those whose tastes run towards the morbid, unusual, or just plain creepy, the Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair in Gowanus had all the gifting solutions you could hope for. Click through for the best selections of the day, from ghastly ornaments to taxidermied trinkets.
Amber Jolliffe, a taxidermy and trinket maven, dug up a series of skulls and antique bullet casings for the fair. Here, she poses next to one of her creations — a stuffed duckling.
For the less adventurous but still curious, skulls abounded — particularly these oddly delicate, pinky finger-length skunk specimens.
These stuffed sparrows could be the perfect (ahem) stocking stuffer. Though for the herbivores amongst us, there were also blown glass terrariums filled with different kinds of moss to hide a bit of green in a city apartment.
Daisy Tainton, who sold this among other taxidermy-related literatures, teaches classes in the art of preserving bugs and critters. “They’re almost always full,” Tainton said. “People are eager to learn a new skill.”
For the literal literary mind, the Morbid Anatomy gift shop carries this spiny copy of The Correct Sadist, driven through on both sides with dozens of nails.
Another gem for scrooges everywhere: Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese’s iconic “Fuck” snow globe.
For the skull collector, there were specimens ranging from fox to turtle to hedgehog.
If a regular duckling doesn’t cut it, perhaps you’d like one with a tiny imperial hat. Chic!
If you really couldn’t find anything amongst the skulls and bugs, there were always these tiny bookshelves rendered from the Brooklyn Library’s former catalog cards.
Or this lovely anatomical print of a human heart? After all, Valentine’s Day’s only a few months away.