Since time immemorial, the world over has been captivated by visions of sirenic beauties half-human and half-fish. Stranger still are the stories told of hunts for these denizens of the deep. One commentator declares, “Of course there are mermaids. The man who gets up and asserts to contrary is mad because he never saw one himself.” In our humble opinion, a more truer sentiment could hardly be expressed.

Fantastic beasts to tantalize our imagination and evoke our nightmares make up this collection. Admittedly, some are more akin to journalistic fantasies, the product of reporters on a slow news day. Whereas others have origins more difficult to trace. Regardless, shutter at the sightings of local monsters, be at awe to discover dinosaurs, regale at the visage of sea serpents and thrill to creatures yet more wonderful, beyond anything you’ve seen before.

Prior to the modern museum, a “cabinet of curiosities” was a collection of both natural objects and antiquities. The items therein were those things, from across the globe, what differed considerably from the everyday. Here we offer a cabinet not of physical oddities but of intangible ideas, accounts, musings and dreams. All and all, with the same spirit of awe that has endeared throughout the generations.