Longtime friend of the site Tim Lonegan dropped me a note yesterday about this incredible piece. He commissioned a truly unique Cthulhu statue from artist Gage Prentiss, himself no stranger to these pages. I strongly recommend clicking through on the link to check out the full gallery of photographs and the detailed backstory behind the statue.
You'll have a chance to view the piece in person at the NecronomiCON Providence art show in August.
The Jade talisman was confiscated from a young deckhand named Jameson at his admission to the Sussex Lunatic Asylum in 1848. He had been commissioned on the Clipper ship, Cricket, during its trade circuit to New Zealand and Australia. Jameson had purchased the amulet from a Maori merchant who traded in jade. The Merchant had said it would protect him from the Ika Tane, or Fish Men, that lived in cities off the coast. Jameson was found a week later aboard the Cricket, near death from exposure, hiding in a large coil of rope. All other hands had vanished. Jameson had claimed that the Ika Tane had "calmed the sea with frog song" and "taken everyone on board under the waves." He claimed that the amulet had saved his life, and was loath to be separated from it. Investigators were at a lost to piece together what happened on the Cricket. There was no sign of violence, or theft from the valuable cargo. The mysterious amulet passed hands many times, and over the years, others like it have surfaced all over the world.
"An old servant forced the carven lid, shaking as he did so at the hideous faces leering from the blackened wood, and at some unplaced familiarity. Inside, wrapped in a discoloured parchment, was a huge key of tarnished silver covered with cryptical arabesques; but of any legible explanation there was none."
The origins of the Toad are steeped in mystery. It was first recorded in the postmortem effects of a soldier who had drowned coming home from the Korean War. He had simply walked off of the side of the ship one night after claiming to have heard the most beautiful sound. From there it passed from family to family, antique shop to antique shop, gaining notoriety from the one thing all its subsequent owners had in common. Rich or poor, meek or powerful, they all died by self afflicted drowning. Though considered a cursed object, it is still bought and sold.
When he would gaze into the Oculus, he would fall into a waking dream. Sometimes he would shoot through the ebon depths of the sea like a fish. Other times he would see spectral lights, and impossible cities under the waves. The excitement and freedom he would feel during these times would always wilt under a dark feeling, though. He would feel watched. The more he used the oculus to dream, the more he would feel like a light in the darkness, drawing something closer. If he used it too much, horrible storms would come. At first he could stop gazing long enough for the ship he labored on to make port, but after a while, he had to leave the whaling trade with a reputation for being unlucky. This pushed him from the Pacific, over to the East coast, where no one recognized him. Like any addiction, his dependence on the Oculus grew, as the vistas it showed him became more maddeningly strange and terrifyingly beautiful.
The India Point Talisman:
This item was discovered in a secret drawer of a whaler's footlocker after an auction in Providence RI, 1977. The lot had been called The India Point Chest and had been a fine example of 19th century Yankee craftsmanship. On the underside of its lid had been written, in the same hand, many ports of call from Singapore to the Caribbean, with all points in between. The scrimshaw tooth, believed to be from an adolescent sperm whale, was found wrapped in a linen handkerchief. On the linen had been written, "Suffer the bad dreams, Hamish. With tooth in pocket, the Leviathans can't spot you. - J "
These items surfaced in Kerman, Iran, during the excavation of a temple-like structure from the 3rd Century. Items and inscriptions found led archaeologists to hypothesize that the temple had been used by an Esoteric Dream Cult. Traces of mind altering mixtures and incense, coupled with strange tablets describing dream travel and fantastic heavenly beings support this. The varied, but eerily similar carved statuettes from an unknown material were said to be gifts from a god, YibbTstll, and were meant to act as the worshiper's servant in the "Dreamlands". Though rare, these effigies have turned up in private collections as well as museums.
This Jade artifact was found by seismologists after the May 4th Earthquake of 1998, on Yonaguni Island in Japan. A previously unknown cave shrine was discovered on the south western coast of the island. Scientists surveying damage from the quake noticed a dark crack in a rock surface facing the sea. The crack was not in the stone, but in a large ceramic door which had been hand molded and fired in place to seal the cave entrance. Badly eroded , finger drawn, writing covered the seal, but could not be deciphered. Archaeologists were called, and the site investigated. The team discovered a small natural cave which dead ended into an alcove. The walls of the cave and alcove were covered with unspeakable, primitive, paintings of unnatural couplings between humans and sea monsters. The only artifacts to be found were the statuette known as the Yonaguni Venus, and the carved ammonite pedestal it rested on.
This fantastic imagining of a fossilized Elder Thing "hand" comes to us from Gage Prentiss. Click through to see a full gallery of the piece.
