With the release of this catalogue, Alchemy harks back once more to a mythically nostalgic bygone era; the intertwining of high technology with the unexplored potential of Victorian innovation. Our Steampunk range takes its cue from the conceptions of famed engineer, Ezekiel Empire Rosenstein. While his most inspired invention – the Galvanic Matter Transpositor – was laughed aside by premier pioneers of his time, recently unearthed sketches and scattered accounts have allowed us to gather enough information to demonstrate this forgotten legacy.
Exclusively for our Alchemy Gothic 1977 customers, we have revitalised the GMT and its components for the modern era; throw the knife switch and be astounded by Rosenstein’s designs for ‘pronto mass remotion’.
Gracing the catalogue’s front cover is a dark champion of the steam-fuelled age; the Black Baron, renowned daredevil and vanguard of self-propelled flight, advocate of means to allow man to take to the sky, unhindered. Desired by women and envied by men throughout underground Victorian England, the Baron is credited with the successful design of mechanical wings after the ambition of Icarus. With leather and metal replacing wax, he casts a darkling shadow through clogged fumes, above rooftops and across the full moon; an unearthly bat with human form, carrying automation into the 21st century.
Beneath the glittering surface of the Empire’s glorious expansion and its magnificent scientific, technical and industrial achievements, a dark storm was brewing. Imperial powers around the globe smouldered and a cataclysmic eruption looked unavoidable. Unknown to the world in general however, a Titanic, clandestine struggle was being performed by a strange coalition of inventors, industrialists and dark, unsung heroes, in the vain attempt at avoiding the otherwise inevitable cataclysm of The Great War.
This was territory that had never before been explored. These were the coming powers of the future.
Without the long-suffering and toiling team of devotee navies, clerks, engineers and artisans in the Alchemy UK workshops, none of these great achievements and wonders of the world would have been possible, and the sincere thanks of EER go out to them yet again. However, without the never-flagging desire and demands of our most esteemed patrons, yourselves, there would be no need for us to reach for the skies. So, dear followers and pioneers of the modern world, it is with utmost sincerity that we offer you our humble gratitude and wish you a most colourful future.
Yours,
Ezekiel Empire Rosenstein
a.k.a. The Alchemist