Meet the Queen Cobra. Majestic looking snakes that were called so because of their long coiling hairs resembling the hairstyle of Queen Tanjii of Kemet.
According to old scriptures, the snakes were gold-coloured and didn’t have scales. Their skin seemed made of dried grass. With these characteristics, you can imagine the surprise when they found out the cobras were excellent swimmers. In fact, they would swim thousands of kilometres to lay their eggs on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Humans and Queen Cobras co-existed in peace. The snakes would calmly slither through their villages, not harming anyone, and appeared curious about everything. In fact, the Queen Cobras loved to get to higher altitudes to inspect their surroundings. Including climbing up the tallest person they could find and settle on their head, using them as watchtowers. They were very trusting animals. Their favourite resting places however were at the lowest places possible. They preferred slumbering at the banks of Nile. The tall grasses resembling their skin camouflaging them.
Although Queen Cobras were very trusting towards humans, they hardly ever entered their homes. Most likely because they preferred open skies. Old pagan beliefs state that pregnant women that woke up to find Queen Cobra curls near their bed were blessed with healthy children. There were many superstitions like that. Another one was finding punctured slither marks in your crops meant fruitful harvests for five seasons. And some believed drinking their venom on the third moon of the flood season would give them a longer life. The venom wasn’t lethal, but later research stated that it didn’t prolong your life either. It did however have hallucinating effects, causing people to see psychedelic patterns.
Queen Cobra Wallcovering!
The unique features of the Queen Cobra inspired a Moooi Wallcovering design that is part of the Memento Moooi Wallcovering collection. The Queen Cobra Wallcovering is made from hand-woven sisal fibres, inspired by the Queen Cobra’s rhythmic curves and grassy habitat. The design comprises round overlapping shapes in a pattern with a hypnotic feel to it.
The Queen Cobra Wallcovering is available online, at Moooi Brand Stores, and at selected Moooi dealers. It also plays an integral part in interior mood Defy Gravity.
Moooi’s Museum of Extinct Animals
Moooi sailed away on a bold adventure around the globe and dug up the dustiest of museum archives to find invaluable treasures: the drawings of lost animals, trimmed by imagination. The most invaluable treasure from past and present expeditions is the unexpected diversity of beauty, in all its forms…
For Moooi, unique drawings of forgotten species were made available by museums and archives from all over the world. Inspired magnificent extinct animal drawings, Moooi created designs for surfaces: a new collection of fabrics and leathers, wall coverings and carpets that bring the Extinct Animals back to life!
