Venenum Apothecaria | Snakes

A one-of-a-kind gothic shadowbox — a poison apothecary's reliquary where serpent bones, preserved rose chafer beetles, and hand-labelled vials of toxin meet behind antique bubble glass, framed in black velvet and gold lace within a restored antique oval frame. Created for collectors drawn to elegance, decay, and ritualistic beauty.

Housed within a restored antique oval frame — its original bubble glass intact, the ornate carved detailing brought back to life by hand — this piece is a poison apothecary's reliquary. The bubble glass, with its characteristic slight distortion and imperfections, gives the composition an otherworldly depth, as though the specimens exist just slightly out of reach, preserved in a different time entirely.

The backing is black velvet layered with gold lace, creating a dark, luminous ground that holds every element in suspended reverence. At the centre, a real articulated snake skeleton coils in a wide spiral — both haunting and refined, like a relic suspended between medicine and venom. Preserved rose chafer beetles (Cetonia aurata) stand with wings fully spread, their metallic green carapaces catching the light — the apothecary's most beautiful guardians.

Two coloured glass vials rest within the frame, each bearing an ornate label with the name of a poison. Inside, a green "liquid" catches the light — the apothecary's most mysterious preparation. Around them, small hand-painted frames display the names and descriptions of various toxins, each one rendered in careful, beautiful lettering — not as warning, but as devotion.

Every element is layered with intention — the antique frame restored, the bubble glass preserved, the velvet and lace arranged as an altar cloth, the specimens given new purpose within a composition that is equal parts natural history and dark liturgy.

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Details:

- Real articulated snake skeleton, arranged in a spiral coil
- Real preserved rose chafer beetles (Cetonia aurata) with spread wings
- Antique oval frame with ornate carved detailing, restored and refreshed by hand
- Original antique bubble glass
- Black velvet and gold lace backing
- Small hand-painted frames with various poison names and descriptions
- Two coloured glass vials, hand-labelled with poison names, containing green "liquid"
- One of a kind — you will receive the exact piece shown

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Processing: Ready to hang. One of a kind — you will receive the exact piece shown.

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Shipping: Carefully packaged to ensure safe delivery. Original design — no copies permitted.

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LORE

There was an apothecary who did not sell cures.

She sold names.
The name of the thing that grows in the shadow of the yew tree.
The name of the root that smells like almonds and means something else entirely.
The name of the green liquid in the small glass bottle
that she kept on the third shelf from the left
and never, not once, explained.

People came to her anyway.
They always do, when they need to know
the true name of something dangerous.

She wrote the names in beautiful letters
because she believed that dangerous things
deserve to be written beautifully.
She pressed them into small painted frames
and hung them where the light could find them
and the serpent could watch over them
and the beetles — green as the liquid, green as envy, green as the first poison
anyone ever thought to name —
could stand guard with their wings open
like they were waiting for something
that had not yet arrived.