Curio cabinets have been around for hundreds of years. In the 1500s, ‘curios’ were thought to be any item that showcased different marvels of the time, as discovered by the great thinkers, scientists, artists and other enlightened people of the time.



These were various treasures that people held dear and would often display in their homes, whether to remind them of an event, place or person or to show off to neighbors and guests. Eventually, people collected so many of these things that cabinetmakers had to make “wunderkammern” or cabinets of wonders and were often very large.



In the later centuries, the scientific community became more compact and organized, and there were fewer and fewer “curiosities.” This, in turn, translated to the wunerkammern, and these later curio cabinets were smaller, much like we see today. Mostly, these were used to store the royal collections of the king and queens of Europe, and console curio cabinets were no longer relegated to store scientific or academic items.


They became furniture pieces meant to store magnificent collections, and thus the curio then grew larger in size once more. Today, the modern curio cabinet is meant to display any item that holds value to the collector, and modern features and designs are widely available.