Colganology2: Cabinet of Curiosities

Today's curio is a Feegee Merman.

Of course, it's not an authentic one - if it was it would be worth a lot of money. But it is a 3D print made using a scan of a genuine Feegee Merman that's in the Horniman Museum in London. Here's the original:

Back in 2015 I was pulling together an episode for QI called Monster Mash. And I desperately wanted to include a Feegee Mermaid/Merman. These were clever fakes made by clever artisans and sold to gullible 19th century Europeans who visited the Far East. In 1842, a Japanese mermaid was exhibited in America by showman P T Barnum under the name of the 'Feejee (Fiji) Mermaid' and they've been known as such ever since. The publicity generated by Barnum led to similar mermaids becoming popular side-show attractions in the second half of the century.

The Horniman's exhibit was originally acquired by the Wellcome Collection in 1919 under the name 'Japanese Monkey-fish'. It was transferred to the Horniman in 1982 where it became known as 'The Merman' due to it having decidedly masculine features.

One of the most frequently asked questions by museum visitors was what the Merman is made from. Other mermaids or mermen have been reported to be made from the head and body of a monkey stitched to the tail of a fish, so it was assumed that the Horniman Merman had been made in a similar way. However, in 2012, the museum decided to find out for certain. So the Merman was x-rayed and CT scanned and had some of its DNA sampled.

What this revealed was that the Merman was partly sculpted and partly real animal parts. The fins and skin on the tail came from a real fish. The jaws also came from a fish, not a monkey. X-rays showed that the Merman has a wooden neck and wooden supports in the torso and near the end of the tail. These provide shape and a solid anchorage for wires that provide an internal framework for the arms and body. There is no skull - the head was built up by winding bundles of fibre around a wooden block and then coating the resulting bundle with clay in which the fish jaws were embedded. Painted papier mâché was used to create the outer skin and details. Moving down the body, the shoulders were made using a piece of wood nailed across the wooden support inside the torso. The arms were constructed using wires coated with papier mâché and tipped with bird claws, probably from a chicken. The form of the body was made in a similar way to the head – with bundles of fibre wrapped around a wooden stick and a metal wire running along the length of the body, which was then covered with clay. The fish tail was fitted over the back part of the clay body form and papier mâché covered the front part. An adhesive was applied to the join and a varnish used on the surface of the specimen. The main tail fin was clipped to form a square shape, but the CT scans of the fin rays suggest that the tail was originally forked.

This was all fantastic detail for my QI episode and I asked whether it was at all possible for the Merman to appear on the show. Unfortunately, this was deemed to be inadvisable as it was so fragile. But then an idea came to me - I knew from friends in the medical profession that CT scan data could be used to create 3D printed models. Could we do the same here? I was delighted when curator Paolo Viscardi agreed to let me have a copy of the scan data. I then arranged (and paid for) the print and this is what I received.

I then painted the model to look like the original so that Stephen, Alan and the other guests could handle the Merman during the show. And, of course, as I'd paid for it, I got to keep it!

I should also point out that this print is only 75% of the size of the original. The cost of printing rises quite steeply the larger you get - you are dealing with three dimensions after all.