‘Anonymous Works’: 50 Mysterious Objects And Artefacts That Are Beyond Weird

It is made of iron, gold, silver and copper, and depicts the fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

He wrote it to his wife Giuliette Fanciulli on January 10, 1913.

When folded according to the instructions, the letter transforms into a mini model of an art gallery.

Frueh made this model to inform his wife about the details of a specific art gallery before her visit.

Image courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

It was made by Marguerite Sirvins (1890–1955) while she was confined to a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Alban, France.

Marguerite was institutionalized after developing symptoms of schizophrenia at the age of 41. While in the hospital, she produced drawings, watercolors, and embroideries.

She ultimately stopped creating artworks when she became increasingly troubled by hallucinations, but produced this wedding gown as her final work: deeply wanting to one day experience marriage, she began to make a bridal gown for an imaginary wedding day. Unfortunately, she died in 1955 and would never wear the dress.

There are no known photographs of Marguerite Sirvins, but a drawing was made by surrealist artist Gérard Vulliamy in 1945.

The original watercolor artwork depicts a calico cat, and when the upper layer of the cobweb is lifted, two cheeky mice are revealed to be scampering below.

“Cobwebs” are a rare example of a mechanical valentine with at least two layers of paper patterned with concentric circles and an image on the top layer

Asbestos Snow was a genuine product produced in the early 20th century, most famously used in the 1939 film, “The Wizard of Oz”.

When snow made from asbestos falls on Dorothy and her friends in a poppy field, they awaken from a spell cast by the Wicked Witch of the West.

Who was Moses Ogden?

Ogden was born in the 1840's and served in the Civil War. After the war, he built a small cabin for himself in Angelica, New York. At night, after his day job as a blacksmith, he would go out into the forest and bring back pieces of wood that spoke to him as an artist. His cabin ended up being filled with these fantastical carvings. It was known locally as "Moses Ogden's Wonderland". It was one of America’s first folk art environments and Ogden was its backyard visionary.

During his lifetime, Ogden was offered vast sums of money to sell his artwork but he always refused. It was said that he found too much enjoyment "in contemplation of the forms and reminiscence of their discovery, conception and execution."

In September, 1917, Popular Science magazine did a small article on Ogden’s “curio shop”. That Popular Science article shows this bird sculpture as well as other pieces. It would be the last public notice of his work and eventually the objects were lost to time and the fading memories of those who remembered it.

Then, in the early 1980’s, a grouping of roughly forty sculptures were discovered in an attic in Olean, New York, not far from Angelica. The answer to who created them remained a mystery until the antique dealer Richard Rockford discovered an old postcard of a moustached man in a bowler hat sitting in his front yard, surrounded by these fantastical carvings. In the lower left corner of the postcard was written “Mose Ogden’s Wonderland” and the mystery started to unravel, the beginning of an artist’s rediscovery story.

Today, Moses Ogden is still relatively unknown to all but a few die-hard dealers and collectors but that is slowly changing as more discoveries emerge.

‘This meteorite, which is 4.5 billion years old, was part of a giant chunk of iron that broke off from a larger mass in an asteroid belt some 320 million years ago — more than 70 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared,’ explains Christie’s Science and Natural History specialist James Hyslop.

At 10.30am on the 12 February, 1947, eyewitnesses saw the meteorite slam through the Earth’s atmosphere. As it sailed over the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in Russia it created an impact flash that was seen for almost 200 miles around.

‘Among the fragments collected from the site was this incredible heart-shaped specimen,’ says Hyslop. ‘Typical meteorites from this shower are twisted like shrapnel or smooth and rounded. Examples in this shape just aren’t seen.’

The configuration of this meteorite, known as ‘The Heart of Space’, is the result of a fortuitous cleavage occurring along the crystalline planes of its iron body at the point where it broke from the original mass. The unusually deep furrow between its lobes also suggests the pointed angle of its fiery blast towards Earth.

‘A mind-boggling series of occurrences and accidents were necessary to make a meteorite of this rare shape,’ notes Hyslop. ‘And what makes it even more endearing is the fact that this piece would have come from the very core of its initial protoplanetary body — it broke off from the heart of its originator.’

She made it as a Christmas present for her children while she was a patient at the Fulton State Hospital, which was the first mental institution west of the Missouri River.

The garment, likely her hospital gown, is full of patriotic, religious and popular references including Noah’s Ark, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the poignant message to her children, “May God be with you until we meet again.”

Ligon was hospitalized for an unspecified condition in 1949 and 1953 and died at the facility several years later.

Inuit carvers traditionally worked in ivory, bone, and stone, creating objects that were not only functional but also deeply expressive of their cultural and spiritual life. Art held a vital role in Inuit society, serving as a bridge between the material and spiritual worlds, a record of daily life, and a means of expressing identity and continuity across generations

A Late Iron Age/Romano-British face carved into a beautiful Ammonite, the hair has been delibertly styled from the fossilized shell. This was found at Great Bedwyn in East Wiltshire and is now on display in Wiltshire Museum.

This rare early 19th-century folk instrument was originally discovered in a Connecticut farm house 70 years ago where it had been for many generations. Constructed of soft maple with ivory inlay and brass upholstery tacks. Unknown origin. Circa 1820.