London · Museums · Science
The memorial chair made from the bed of the surgeon John Hunter is not on display in his museum but kept in storage. A plaque records that the chair was made on 22 September 1879 by Francis Buckland, and describes how Hunter's bed came into his hands: from
Museums · Science · Mores · Humour
Now you know what the bastard offspring of a stool and a four-poster looks like. This dreadful armchair is possibly one of the most preposterous and uncomfortable pieces of furniture I have ever had occasion to see. And yet so hideous a throne is not merely a monument to
Archive · Monarchies · Mores
To be invited to a feast with Ivan the Terrible is, of course, a sign of particular favour. That said, the Tsar invited the long-awaited embassy from the King of Denmark only after asking for the list of gifts and satisfying himself that they sufficed. The Tsar's
Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · People
Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure. Ivan the Terrible he portrays as an arrogant, pompous, vain and abrupt man, surrounded by dull-witted boyars and streltsy. The prince, moreover, was wholly inattentive and simply did not listen to the reading of the embassy's
Archive · Monarchies · Mores
Ivan the Terrible receives the Danish ambassadors together with his eldest son. Before the audience, the court officials (pristavs) strictly forbade the ambassadors to recite the titles of their king before those of the Prince of Moscow, reminding them that envoys who had once broken this rule had been expelled
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Paris
Since we have embarked on listing Coco Chanel's lovers, she also had a pre-war affair with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, first cousin of Nicholas II and a participant in the murder of Rasputin. One of the most notorious figures of the White emigration, the Grand Duke for
Paris · People · Pop Culture
The history of the feud involving the Dutch-Javanese supermodel Toto Koopman (1908-1991), who worked in Paris before the Second World War and positively despised Chanel, is also of interest. Later the fascists arrested her for espionage and sent her to a concentration camp. One wonders whether Coco had
Mores · Paris · People · Pop Culture
Well, let us go on recalling spies from the world of fashion. Coco Chanel, for instance, was a Nazi asset in occupied France under the codename Westminster. This is hardly surprising, given that she was the mistress of the SS officer Walter Schellenberg, who wore Hugo Boss and in his
Books · Observations · People · Pop Culture · Humour
lol, fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev has given me a fashionable dressing-down for not citing his bestseller in my piece on Volkova. Needless to say, a great deal is written about the Russian spy in general, especially in the gutter press. But on the whole his "Beauty in Exile&
Aristocracy · Archive · People
The father of the White émigré spy Anna Volkova, Nikolai Alexandrovich, belonged to that very Volkov-Muromtsev family, tied to the Griboyedovs by bonds of both marriage and property. Nikolai's own brother Vladimir Volkov-Muromtsev, disinherited by their father, by an irony of fate became in 1895 the
London · Mores · Society · People · Pop Culture
In 1940, Anna Volkova-Muromtseva, a White émigré and the daughter of the last naval attaché of the Russian Empire in England, was arrested in London. Anna Nikolayevna was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Volkova was an active member of the Right Club, an opponent of Britain'
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