INTRODUCTION

If recent events tell us anything it is that nature still calls the shots despite our best efforts to harness and control her. As human beings we have an innate ability to appreciate her, but also to distance ourselves by prioritising our desires over our needs. Not without irony is it that due to many of those desires being denied us during an imposed lockdown did some of our appreciation of nature return; many found therapy in the simple wonders of the natural world to which we belong, comfort in the opportunity for her to breathe and thrive once more, and solace in the time we found ourselves with which to observe and appreciate her. We were transported back to the periphery of a time when we took a more balanced seat in the great cycle of life, and were as a result more finely tuned into the grander scheme of things.

The collection of objects in our forthcoming exhibition The Natural World is a tribute to that time. It exposes what wonders nature herself is capable of conjuring without our interference, and showcases objects which were dependent upon the skills, patience and learning of a distant past.

All of the hurry and haste of life will return soon enough, and with them many of the pleasures we all seek, but hopefully we will take forward a keener ability to appreciate all of the mystery and magic of the natural world to which we belong, and which remain inherent within the objects presented in this collection.