Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The Cheese of the Month Club


The Zymoglyphic Museum's collections serve a variety of purposes. Its main holdings are the Zymoglyphic artifacts, which include among them the famous miniature viewing stone and Xenophora collections. Since collecting and arranging objects is an important aspect of Zymoglyphic culture, the museum maintains an auxiliary set of collections which reflect that spirit. One type of collection is the curiosity cabinet, in which a wide variety of natural and artificial wonders are gathered together. Another is the specialized collection, where a number of related objects are presented as variations on a theme. The museum's specialized collections now have their own exhibit space.

We have previously featured here the crab and happy object collections. In this entry we showcase the museum's unique Living Cheese collection. These are rare English cheeses which have been created using a special process which gives them each a unique personality. They are, from left to right, Swiss, Nacho, and Blue.

This collection was acquired via subscription to the Cheese of the Month Club, an exclusive group of which this museum was the only known member. Unfortunately, the subscription only lasted three issues, with a fourth installment being devoured enroute from London (see below). Fortunately, the museum considers three the minimum number of related items needed to qualify as a collection. The club's proprietor, Sarah Brunner, is now running the Otto Retro shop in Exeter, Devon.