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5Visit our Alchemy Empire feature site to view steampunk inspired artefacts and art from the Alchemy studios.

Imagine a world in which the greatest leaps of innovation were propelled in a heated rush of industrious haze; a bygone era where proud pioneers dared to break the mould, creating prototypes for unfathomable feats of technology that relied on nothing more than the power of steam, the energy of the sun and the crank of metal – or the crashing force of a lightning bolt, captured and harnessed for some improbably exotic experement.

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Visit our Alchemy Empire feature site to view steampunk inspired artefacts and art from the Alchemy studios.

Imagine a world in which the greatest leaps of innovation were propelled in a heated rush of industrious haze; a bygone era where proud pioneers dared to break the mould, creating prototypes for unfathomable feats of technology that relied on nothing more than the power of steam, the energy of the sun and the crank of metal – or the crashing force of a lightning bolt, captured and harnessed for some improbably exotic experement.

Such a world is not as far-fetched a concept as one might first believe – its ideals of progress to launch society out of the darkness of the Victorian age not quite so lost to the dusty annals of history.

The concept of steampunk is a relatively recent one – despite the foundations being set by masterful authors such as Shelly and Poe, later followed by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells towards the end of the 19th century – having only truly rooted in the public consciousness since the 1980s as a wry response to the onset of cyberpunk.

Far from that dank, dystopian future of high technology, artificial intelligence and societies run by multimedia corporations, steampunk harks back to a richer, more flamboyant age, full of the excitement of new possibility rather than dragged into the mire of electric apathy. Darkly romantic and often highly idealistic, steampunk draws its appeal from reimagination, inviting those of open mind into an alternate world where they are encouraged to ask ‘what if...’

 

Computers, often based on real, forgotten configurations by the likes of Charles Babbage, exist long before their time; zeppelins drift ponderously through smoke-choked London skies, monstrous machinations totter on spindly legs and elegant fashion of the Victorian gentleman is highly sought. Artistry in automation becomes something to be prized, exclusive of the restraints of electricity. The perfect, punkish fusion of past and present... and in the modern world, steampunk has become more than just an obscure sub-culture to be fallen upon by accident – with a large proportion of the mass media, recent films and bands such as Abney Park and Voltaire adopting this simmering genre as their inspiration.

Alchemy Gothic embraced this brave new aeon of innovation as far back as 1986, with its collection of 18th century scientific curiosities from Dr von Rosenstein, including the infamous Induction principle Ring. More recently the collection has encompassed the later years of invention and incorporated pieces crafted from the ingenious designs of the 19th century Ezekiel Empire Rosenstein, the next ‘generation’, and used in intrepid times by the shadowy hero known as the Black Baron.

Now entitled Alchemy Empire, this collection is sure to invoke the attention of steampunk enthusiasts, as well as the more adventurous and eccentric traditional ‘goth’ aspirants.

Visit our Alchemy Empire feature site to view steampunk inspired artefacts and art from the Alchemy studios.

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