Grand Cabinet of Curiosities 1796.
Cabinets of curiosities were collections of objects belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, anatomy ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art, and antiquities. These collections were the forerunners to museum collections, and were popular travelling exhibitions. The handbill advertises the collection of the Swiss physician and anatomical wax modeller Philippe Curtius (1737–1794). In this collection was the head of the Governor of the Bastille (the Parisian prison where the French Revolution began) as well as a model of the guillotine. Curtius would teach the art of wax modeling, and leave his wax collection upon his death to Marie Grosholtz, who would later be known as Madame Tussaud.  The text is from the original handbill. The illustration is an ofgraveconcern original playing on the title of the venue ‘Neptune’s coffee house’.