Lovely Cuff Links Featured Plague Bacteria

SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP COLLECTION © THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE SCIENCE MUSEUM/CC BY 4.0

The image above may evoke watercolors, but it actually references a deadly bacteria. The circa 1900 cufflinks entered the collection of the Science Museum in London in the late 1980s. The cufflinks contain pictures of two different strains of plague bacteria with the names of the strains engraved on the back. They may have been made by Russian luxury jeweller Fabergé.
The cufflinks are lovely although the bubonic plague certainly was not.

Read more:  Atlas Obscura