Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It was midnight when the smugglers entered the harbor, drifting silently between the larger vessels anchored along the docks.

Passing beneath the bridge, they pulled up alongside a rickety pier and got to work unloading

their contraband.

Within minutes, the wharf was groaning from the weight of large wooden crates.

Smugglers worked quickly and had almost completed the task when pandemonium erupted.

A shrill whistle blast pierced the night that a small army of police constables

poured onto the docks surrounding the smugglers. Those who tried to run met the end of

a cudgel, a stack of crates toppled, smashing against the dock and spilling their contents over the wooden

planks.

One of the constables knelt, reaching down to reverently touch the Snow White contraband.

The crates were not full of drugs or weapons or stolen jewelry.

They contained something even more valuable.

This was Po'n du Lacan, a type of needlepoint lace crafted by Carmelite nuns from southern France, dubbed the

queen of lace for its beauty, it was among the most desired fabrics in the world.

It wasn't the material involved that made the lace so valuable, but the artistry, craftsmanship, and labor that went into every hand-stitched piece.

A single square centimeter took seven hours to create and involved the labor of 18 craftswwomen. The fact that it was both

beautiful and difficult to create made an incredibly popular among European

...