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NB! · Archive · Observations · Humour
A Rather Fine Element for a Ladies' Halloween Costume from the 1920s
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
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · People
Catherine de' Medici left 400,000 écus to her servants, from doctors to maids of honour
Catherine de' Medici, hated by many and regarded as a spiteful, heartless schemer and a royal mischief-maker, spent her last minutes drawing up her will. It is even said that the will took so long that her son had to finish dictating his mother's last wishes
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Mores · People
To put it mildly, the people and the court received the news of Catherine de' Medici's death with mixed feelings
To put it mildly, the people and the court received the news of Catherine de' Medici's death with mixed feelings. Here are a few interesting remarks about the poor old lady. “There were those who said all sorts of things about her death, and even about poison.
NB! · Archive · Geography · Nature · Ethnography
Willow twig barometer at a reindeer farm in Shebalino in the Altai
A barometer on a reindeer farm at Shebalino in the Altai. The secret is that the "barometer" uses a willow twig. As the humidity rises, the twig loses its springiness and droops. Photograph by the American Dean Conger, who travelled in the USSR in 1966-75.
NB! · Archive · Faith · Cinema · Paris
Archive footage from the filming of the Chambord stag in the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache
Archive · Art · Moscow · Mores
Correspondence between Shchukin and Matisse on the panels “Dance” and “Music” for a staircase
The Russians bought so much Matisse that admirers and friends even asked him whether his pictures would soon be visible only in Moscow. Shchukin commissioned Dance as a large panel for a staircase landing, together with a second large canvas, Music. A touching correspondence passed between patron and painter: on
Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums
Collector Shchukin acquired 37 paintings by Matisse over seven years of acquaintance
The calling card of the Shchukin collection: Henri Matisse's Dance. Matisse's canvases occupy a special place in Shchukin's collection, just as the artist himself does in the life of the collector. As for Shchukin's place in the life of Matisse, the reformer
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Nature
Some of the larches in the park at Arkhangelskoye are two hundred years old, and on plans from the early nineteenth century they appear as tiny saplings half a metre tall
Some of the larches in the park at Arkhangelskoye are two hundred years old, and on plans from the early nineteenth century they appear as tiny saplings half a metre tall. The trees were planted so that their trunks would visually continue the palace colonnade
Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores · Humour
When I am told that I love animals too much and people too little, I remember the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, of whom it was said that, rising at 11 in the evening, she did not sleep until 9 in the morning, kept 8 dogs, and at night ordered the livers to be
When I am told that I love animals too much and people too little, I remember the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, of whom it was said that, rising at 11 in the evening, she did not sleep until 9 in the morning, kept 8 dogs, and at night ordered the livers
Archive · Books · Society · Saint Petersburg · Humour
From the Diary of Alexandra Viktorovna Bogdanovich, a Lady of Society
One peasant shook his fist at the criminals; he was seized, on the supposition that he was against the police. One woman was seized: she had waved a handkerchief. I inform the author of these lines, from 4 April 1881: there is still a great deal of comedy here, you