Large framed painting: a young woman in a light dress holding red flowers shakes hands with a man in a grey tunic, surrounded by applauding people, with microphones and flowers on the table.

NB!

Museum painting: a woman with a bouquet shakes hands with a man at a meeting

A large painting in a museum hall: uniformed military men around a table with a red cloth in a room with columns and chandeliers.

NB! · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Visitors to the New Tretyakov Gallery are invited to the fourth floor

How can one not love the New Tretyakov Gallery? Do look in on the 4th floor

Books · London · Observations · Mores

The White Lady cocktail, the English legend and Boieldieu's opera after Walter Scott

There is a classic cocktail made from gin, orange liqueur and lemon juice: the White Lady. Its name is usually linked to Ella Fitzgerald, who sang about a white lady. But the cocktail itself was devised in London when Ella was still an infant. And in England the image of

Observations · Mores · Nature · Humour

Lady Hamilton's poodle Codina and the fashion for poodles during the fall of the French monarchy

Aww, what a darling! Little Codina, the favourite poodle of Horatio Nelson's mistress, Lady Hamilton. In Russia at this time large poodles were the fashion, while in Europe small ones like this were preferred. Poodles came into great vogue precisely in the years of the fall of the

Books · Observations · Society

Irina Prokhorova is preparing a book on women entrepreneurs in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries

Irina Prokhorova has revealed that she is preparing a large book on women entrepreneurs in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to her, before the Revolution 13% of women in Russia had a business of their own. Well, we shall await the book.

Observations · Mores · Society Pages · Humour

At the Veuve Clicquot Award I learnt that Madame Clicquot was widowed very young and inherited rich wine cellars which it was DANGEROUS to enter, owing to the shards of exploding champagne bottles, so that the wine vaults could only be visited…

At the Veuve Clicquot Award I learnt that Madame Clicquot was widowed very young and inherited rich wine cellars which it was DANGEROUS to enter, owing to the shards of exploding champagne bottles, so that the wine vaults could only be visited in special protective suits, against the explosions. Sounds

A man in a grey T-shirt leans toward the ground beside a sarcophagus painted with hieroglyphs and figures, surrounded by rubble and stones.

NB!

Man examining a painted ancient Egyptian sarcophagus at an excavation site

Archaeology · The East

In Luxor, a burial site containing 30 beautifully preserved 3,000-year-old sarcophagi of children and of male and female priests from the 22nd Dynasty has been discovered

In Luxor, a burial site containing 30 beautifully preserved 3,000-year-old sarcophagi of children and of male and female priests from the 22nd Dynasty has been discovered. It is the largest find since the nineteenth century. More here: https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-30-ancient-egyptian-sarcophagi-opened-

Archaeology · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Humour

Leather shoes of Henry VIII's era in Holbein's portrait and in museum collections

In Holbein's portrait, Henry VIII is wearing some seriously cool white leather loafers. This type of footwear was popular in Renaissance England, and such slippers became widespread in court circles precisely in the early sixteenth century, though they had to compete with another fashionable model, the heeled shoe.

NB! · Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour

And yes, the ancestor of Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones", a poet and courtier of the sixteenth century, Sir John Harington, invented the first flushing lavatory for the aged Queen Elizabeth I

Books · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Sir John Harington's joke, which he played on James VI

Sir John Harington's joke, which he played on James VI. At least, so it is recorded in the book by the admirable Christina Larner, a historian and one of the first to take up the subject of witchcraft. The court poet, incidentally an ancestor of our beloved Kit

Archive · Faith · People · Ethnography

Theodor Herzl on a 1902 Warsaw Simchat Torah flag and the end of the Torah reading cycle

The founder of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl, is shown alongside the biblical figures of Moses and Aaron on a flag printed in Warsaw for the celebration of Simchat Torah in 1902. Imagine Herzl's glory at that moment, when his face found itself between a biblical prophet

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