Unlike the eventual Glass Flower, a private commission to a single University's museum, the Blaschka glass sea creatures were a global enterprise; and not just for museums and other such educational institutes, for "as popular interest in the history and sciences of the natural world burgeoned during the latter half of the 19th century, the sea became particularly alluring. The spread of home aquariums and the advent of deep-sea diving revealed a new frontier, filled with wondrous and unusual creatures." In short, for the first time since Darwin, there was great universal interest in the natural world, and it became a sign of culture, of worldliness and sophistication, to exhibit examples of life in one's drawing rooms and parlors. Hence private individuals were after these extraordinary models as well, and the Blaschkas, knowing this and knowing that Reichenbach was correct in that many museums would want them, made a mail-order business out of it. This business was hugely successful and they ended up making and selling 10,000 glass invertebrates dispersed in a diaspora of shipments all across the globe. Indeed, "the world had never seen anything quite like the beautiful, scientifically accurate Blaschka models" and yet they were available via so common a means as mail-order per one's local card catalog; for example, Ward's Natural Science would sell a small glass octopus for approximately $2.50. Not glorious, perhaps, but highly effective, and museums and universities began purchasing them en masse to put on display much as Prof. Reichenbach had – for natural history museums directors the world over had the same marine invertebrate showcasing problem. In short, Blaschka invertebrate models mail-order enterprise succeeded for two reason: 1- there was a huge and global demand; 2- they were the only and best glass artists capable of crafting literally scientifically flawless models. Initially the designs for these were based on drawings in books, but Leopold was soon able to use his earlier drawings to produce highly detailed models of other species, and his reputation quickly spread.