Miniature Devonian Fossil Collection by Wendy Smale

As you all must know, I am excited by all things miniature, especially the exotic and the unusual kind. In my quest, I found a real treasure by an amazing artist, Wendy Smale. It is a unique piece for a fossil collector, or for a collector of scale miniatures.


In the first half of the 19th century the geologic time scale that we use today was being developed and the importance of fossils to recognizing and sequencing deposits was great. The Devonian period was named at this time, for the English county of Devon, and so my labelling of the collection as Devonian but without an absolute age makes it appropriate for a setting of the mid 19th century onwards. Collecting fossils was a popular pastime for many educated Victorians.


This is a delicate Bespaq display case in 1:12 scale, filled with 18 tiny real fossils. The fossils are a collection of marine fossils from Alpena, Michigan, dating to the Devonian period (417-354 million years ago). Most are labelled with readable labels, and the display is identified by location and age. The collection includes three different crinoid discs and a stem fragment, various bryozoan species including Fenestella and Rhombopora, coral, a bivalve and brachiopod, shell fragments, a piece of fossiliferous matrix and various other specimens.

This one-of-a-kind treasure is on auction right now!
Here is the ebay link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Miniature-Devonian-Fossil-Collection-Crinoids-
Bespaq_W0QQitemZ120059283409QQihZ002QQcategory
Z3214QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

To find out more about the creations by Wendy Smale, visit:

http://wendysminiatures.com/