One of the fascinating displays in the Museum in Edinburgh is of tiny glass models of marine creatures.  These are only about 15mm high so the detailed fronds of the Sargatia Rosea are really tiny. 
The delicate glass artworks of sea creatures were made by Leopold Blaschka and his son using very basic equipment and impeccable accuracy with techniques which no one has been able to replicate in spite of having modern tools.  Their models were greatly in demand by universities and museums before modern photography.
The displayed notes about these tiny models state
During the late 19th century master glass artist Leopold Blaschka, and later his son Rudolph, produced beautifully detailed glass models of plants and sea creatures for natural history museums the world over. Blaschka trained as a jeweller and goldsmith in the Czech Republic before moving to Dresden in Germany in 1863.  His models replicated the form, colour and translucency that was lost when marine creatures were preserved in ethanol.  At a time when aquariums were rare and underwater photography impossible these models were the closest that most people could come to experiencing such animals.