Nature · Ethnography · Humour

The Wolpertinger and Other Fabled European Chimeras Known from Stuffed Specimens in Germany

The little wolpertinger is a folkloric creature of the Alpine forests of Bavaria. This tiny mammal, furnished with horns, wings, claws and webbed feet, belongs to a whole family of European fairy-tale chimeras, which includes the dilldapp, the rauracle, the raselbock, the squonk and the elwedritsch, each assembled from

Hand-coloured engraving of a stepped catafalque with a coffin, candles, banners and four guard officers, an angel flying above. A caption below names Kutuzov and Kazan Cathedral.

NB!

Catafalque with the Coffin of Prince M. I. Kutuzov-Smolensky in Kazan Cathedral

Archive · Monarchies · People

Kutuzov's final days, reconciliation with Alexander I and the funeral procession

On 28 April 1813 Mikhail Kutuzov died of a cold in Bunzlau, aged 68. It is held that before his death the great Kutuzov was at last reconciled with his perpetual adversary, Tsar Alexander I. The constant quarrels between Alexander I and Kutuzov had begun as long ago as 1805,

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

What, in your view, should a person look like who wishes to sample a chocolate Charles III?

NB! · Observations · Mores

Everyone has a close one who pulls them up and a friend who pulls them down; the main thing is not to mix them up

NB! · Art · People

One of the greatest German still-life masters, Sebastian Stoskopff (1597-1657), specialised in depicting glass goblets and beakers

A large black figure in a long hooded robe, holding a rosary, is painted on a pale sheet. Deep blue hanging panels frame it on both sides.

NB!

Dark silhouette of a nun with a rosary on a pale canvas between blue panels

Science · Society

Catherine I introduced square copper plate money in 1726 due to a silver shortage

Russian history once knew a period of square money. These were copper plates in denominations of a rouble, a poltina, a half-poltina, a grivna, 5 kopecks and 1 kopeck, issued by the Yekaterinburg Mint. Catherine I signed the decree on the minting of copper plates on 4 February 1726:

Archaeology · Museums · Observations · Heritage

The Shigir Idol, over 12,000 years old, in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore

The greatest impression made on me in Yekaterinburg was by the Shigir Idol in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. This enormous wooden effigy, 3.4 metres tall, is the oldest wooden sculpture ever found. What surprises me most is how little known this monument is, though it is

Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

To Mummy and Papa, in memory of their Coronation, from Lilibet (by hand)

A note from the eleven-year-old Princess Lilibet, the future Queen Elizabeth II, to her parents, George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, on the day of their coronation, 12 May 1937. The loss of simplicity, naivety and spontaneity is, after all, one of the most significant losses mankind suffered

A cylindrical metal structure with a serrated top, red lamps and a lowered ramp on a concrete pad. Factory buildings and a gantry crane stand behind it under a cloudy sky.

NB!

Art object shaped like a rusty submarine conning tower at an industrial plant

Art · Cinema · Humour

Pepelats art object built by Uralkhimmash welders stands on the plant grounds

A pepelats, as is well known, is very rarely adapted for horizontal travel across the surface of a planet. Before us is a classic model of the civilian cylindrical pepelats, built by the welders of the Uralkhimmash plant. The art object stands on the plant's grounds and serves

Latest