Books · Observations · Mores · Reportage

Visit to a warehouse sale of old things, furniture and books with a 1000 rouble entry fee

Went to a junk sale today. There is an organisation that collects unwanted things and furniture, free of charge or for a small sum for the items or the removal. This cast-off stuff ends up in a warehouse, for entry to which they charged 1000 roubles today, and after

NB! · Observations · Mores

Everyone has crystal, but almost no one uses it

Books · Observations · Society

Interest in one's own history as a glance back after a fall at full stride

Klyuchevsky has these words:. "Why do people so love to study their past, their history? Probably for the same reason that a man who has stumbled in mid-stride likes, once he is back on his feet, to look round at the spot where he fell." When we

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Before you are two remarkably similar portraits

Before you are two remarkably similar portraits. The one in colour shows Charles II, King of England; the second, the English aristocrat and politician Charles Boyle. Evidently, Boyle commissioned an exact copy of the king's portrait, with his own head fitted on to it. The clothes, the pose,

Left, a framed portrait of a man in a long dark wig, white doublet and robe with a chain of office. Right, an engraving of a standing man in a wig and robe, his hand on a table.

NB!

Two formal portraits of men in Order of the Garter robes, one colour, one black and white

NB! · Observations · Palaeontology · Nature

These organisms lived on the floor of an icy sea 550 million years ago

These organisms lived on the floor of an icy sea 550 million years ago. I do not know whether they are animals or plants, but they are very beautiful, especially Tumblina and Tamga. Were I a designer, I should pay particular attention to these little ones

NB! · Books · Observations · Palaeontology · Nature

Found a most interesting and charming book, "Ancient Monsters of Russia", and in it, vital information about mammoths

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Moscow

In St Basil's Cathedral there are steps in front of the windows; in fact this is an architects' ruse to increase the insolation of the church interiors: a stepped surface reflects more sunlight

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Humour

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart. James and Henry IV were contemporaries. Feel the difference

A miniature black coffin with a carved bone lid, and an open coffin with a bone skeleton against red lining.

NB! · Art · London · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Miniature early 19th century coffin with skeleton sold at Sotheby's for £3,000

At Sotheby's this 15-centimetre memento mori souvenir from the kit of an early nineteenth-century English soldier sold for £3,000. A thoroughly disagreeable trinket, but there is no disputing about historical tastes..

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · People · Humour

Here is a muscleman: Henry of Navarre as Hercules, victor over the Lernaean Hydra

Here is a muscleman: Henry of Navarre as Hercules, victor over the Lernaean Hydra. The portrait clearly flatters the figure of the founder of the Bourbon dynasty, but it recalls the comical genealogy of the House of Navarre, traced from a son of Hercules

Close-up of a bronze statue showing the back, buttocks and thigh of a nude male figure, with drapery folds on the left.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · Humour

Nude Henry IV as Jupiter in a sculpture at the Louvre

The Louvre holds a sculpture of a naked Henry IV in the guise of Jupiter. Thanks to the statue, we can learn that the monarch had a well-toned behind, while from the front there is, frankly, nothing to look at

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