Following the printing of a 3000-year-old chinese oracle bone the Cambridge University Digital Library have been busy scanning other objects for 3d printing. The Media Studio 3d printing lab has printed replicas of some unique and irreplaceable objects, constructed from hundreds of photographs of every aspect of the object by Professor Huw Jones and his team at the library.

Here we see a sculpture of an Asante drummer that was used as a gold weight; a pipe stopper with Shakespeare's head, cut  in the 1750s by the Reverend Francis Gaskell from a mulberry tree that was planted by Shakespeare; and a Batak oracle bone carved from buffalo bone and decorated with figures and Batak script. 3d prints can be used to allow researchers and the general public to handle and study the objects in facsimile, with no risk to the original. These, and many other 'curious objects' can be seen on the Cambridge Digital Library Website.