Many years ago during a small game shoot in Germany a participant’s careless shot ended in a young lady’s leg. She was taken to the hospital where the culprit excused himself by presenting her with a rabbit pendant. Not only did he ask for her pardon but he also proposed to her. This was too much for her escort and husband to be, Johann Daniel Gerstein, who in his own words explains that “this I had to forestall”. The pendant turned out to be the first rabbit of a collection from around the globe and which Mr. Gerstein had the opportunity to help enlarge to about 600 pieces during his extensive professional travels.

The collection has been exhibited in many places in Germany, among them the Jagdschloss Springe and the Deutsches Jagdmuseum in Munich. Now Mrs. Gerstein and her husband, who is a member of the CIC, have graciously lent part of their collection to the CIC Museum in Palárikovo. Rabbits made of porcelain and bronze, rabbits painted on plates and on ties and a whole showcase dedicated to Albrecht Dürer’s famous rabbit can be admired. An interesting piece is a bowl recuperated from a Chinese junk which sank about 200 years ago and was lifted with all its wares intact in the year 2000.

The exhibit was opened on 29 November, 2014 during the two-day conference of the CIC YO Working Group on the theme of “Trophy based selection and trophy improvement – the consequences on natural populations”. Present at the opening were the 25 YO members, and the mayors of Palárikovo and the neighboring village.

It is planned to leave the exhibit in Palárikovo until after Easter 2015 and then move it to Hungary. At the same time Werner Trense’s “Stags of the World” exhibit which had been lent to the CIC Museum for 5 years will be taken back by the Museum Jagdschloss Granitz.