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NB! · Observations · Humour
I do not know what this little stool in the foreground was originally meant for: a child, a gnome or a lapdog, but these days it is usually used for charging a phone
NB! · Faith · The East · Nature · Ethnography
It is said that the restless souls of the samurai wander the seabed in the form of heikegani crabs, whose shells bear the imprinted faces of warriors
Archive · Books · Museums · Observations
I read this card with such delight!
I read this card with such delight! And afterwards I pestered a member of the museum staff, quizzing him about the details of the dinner depicted, about which room Napoleon-Jérôme (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and darling of the whole family) had stayed in, and whether any of his personal
NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · People
The table is laid for ten: George Sand receives her guests
The table is laid for ten: George Sand receives her guests. In this photograph you can make out that the head of the table is reserved for a certain Prince. Know, then, that the place card reads 'Le Prince Jérôme Napoléon'
NB! · Architecture · Faith
The Immaculate Vestibule of St Augustine's Church in Mainz
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
No sooner had I got rid of my collection of porcelain with monarchical symbols than I began eyeing plates with Masonic ones
No sooner had I got rid of my collection of porcelain with monarchical symbols than I began eyeing plates with Masonic ones. Somebody hold me back
NB! · Observations · Nature
The baby pangolin is an endangered species: the Chinks are actively wiping it out, believing that either the flesh or the scales of the pangolin have curative powers
The baby pangolin is an endangered species: the Chinks are actively wiping it out, believing that either the flesh or the scales of the pangolin have curative powers. What a pity that defenceless animals suffer so much at the hands of man
NB! · Art · Mores · Nature · Humour
The Rhinoceros Clara in a Painting by Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1751
Clara is 13, weighs 3 tons, has been touring all over Europe since the age of 3 in a coach drawn by 8 horses, and her urine is sold as medicine. The year is 1751. The Grimani Family and the Rhinoceros (and a heap of dung), Pietro Longhi, Venice
NB! · Architecture · Observations · Mores · Paris
Found on Google Street View the Deer Park I wrote about yesterday
Found on Google Street View the Deer Park I wrote about yesterday. It is hard to imagine that in the eighteenth century this place was such a den of iniquity. A couple of years ago the building was on sale for 6.5 million euros
Archaeology · Observations · Heritage · Ethnography
Excavation of the Ukok Princess in 1983 and the dispute over reburial of the mummy
Why do I say alas? Because one truly wishes that the touching devotion of the people of Altai to their native mummies might be rewarded. The Ukok Princess was excavated in 1983, and her body was remarkably well preserved for its age of 2,500 years. All thanks to the
NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · Society · Ethnography
Altai people demand the return of the Ukok Princess from a Gorno-Altaysk museum for burial
For years now the Altaians have been demanding that the Ukok Princess be returned home and committed to the earth. Though she is, in any case, kept in a museum in Gorno-Altaysk, she belongs to the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Altaian elders, alas,