Aristocracy - The Parnassian (Page 31)

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The Duke of Alba's Dinner in Honour of the Birth of the Prince of Asturias, 1707

The Duke of Alba's dinner in honour of the birth of the Prince of Asturias, 1707. I noticed an amusing detail: there is not a single glass on the table. Why? If any of the guests should deign to drink, the servants will bring him one at once

Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores

The Military Governor of Moscow, Yury Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, was a great friend of the eminent grandee Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin, formerly Military Governor of Smolensk and known above all for his lavish receptions at his house on…

According to the account of Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, Apraksin and Dolgorukov had made a rather peculiar compact: whichever of them died first was to give a sign to the other, who remained among the living, and to appear to him three times before his death, to announce that the hour

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Princess Shcherbatskaya advised Levin's old nurse Agafya Mikhailovna on how to make jam properly, without adding water

Princess Shcherbatskaya advised Levin's old nurse Agafya Mikhailovna on how to make jam properly, without adding water. At the end, once the jam had been poured into jars, the princess's recipe prescribed covering it with a paper soaked in rum. "Do it my way, please,

Bronze sculpture of a seated Rottweiler on a white pedestal with a plaque reading “To Sultan, beloved dog of Countess Panina”, with trees and water behind.

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Monument to Sultan, Countess Sofia Panina's Rottweiler, in the Marfino Estate Park

Monument to the dog Sultan, one of the first Rottweilers in Russia and the companion of Countess Sofia Vladimirovna Panina, an outstanding woman of her time. The sculpture stands in the park of her country estate of Marfino, near Moscow

Aristocracy · Art · Mores

The Cholmondeley Ladies, early 17th century

The Cholmondeley Ladies, early 17th century. The inscription on the painting reads: "Two Ladies of the Cholmondeley Family, who were born the same day, married the same day, and brought to bed the same day." The ladies, portrayed in identical poses and identical attire, with identical infants in

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Though, in the respectable Nabokov family, things turned out melodramatic enough even without "Poor Nastya": Vladimir Nabokov's grandmother was married to his grandfather from the age of 15 and called her husband "a monkey with cold feet", at the time of

Though, in the respectable Nabokov family, things turned out melodramatic enough even without "Poor Nastya": Vladimir Nabokov's grandmother was married to his grandfather from the age of 15 and called her husband "a monkey with cold feet", while at the time of the wedding

Aristocracy · Books · Observations · Humour

Nabokov's paternal grandmother Maria Ferdinandovna was born Baroness von Korff

It turns out that Nabokov's paternal grandmother, Maria Ferdinandovna, was born a Baroness von Korff. I wonder whether she was related to Baron Korf from "Poor Nastya"? What an amusing turn of events that would be

Aristocracy · Archaeology · Faith · Monarchies

Search for the Romanovs' resting place at Ganina Yama after Prince Golitsyn's 1976 trip

In 1976 Prince Golitsyn attempted to reconstruct the picture of the murder of the Imperial Family and visited Yekaterinburg. But finding the mines into which the bodies of the Romanovs had been thrown proved far from easy. Local residents refused to say where the iron mines were situated, to which

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The water really does have a connection to the Medici family: it comes from a spring on the grounds of their Tuscan hunting estate of Panna, from which the Medici had it brought to Florence in enormous flasks

NB! · Aristocracy · Heritage

This is the key to the Bastille: in 1790 the Marquis de Lafayette presented it to his old friend George Washington

This is the key to the Bastille: in 1790 the Marquis de Lafayette presented it to his old friend George Washington. Washington hung the key in his house at Mount Vernon, where it hangs to this day

Aristocracy · Books · Mores · People

If we are to believe that the prototype of the Queen of Spades was the old Princess Golitsyna, then we must of course bear in mind: Natalya Petrovna was one of the most beautiful women of her time, in Paris she was called the Muscovite Venus, Emperor Geor

If we are to believe that the prototype of the Queen of Spades was the old Princess Golitsyna, then we must of course bear in mind: Natalya Petrovna was one of the most beautiful women of her time, in Paris she was called the Muscovite Venus, Emperor George II gave

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Princess Olga Paley, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, sixth son of Alexander II, has an interesting recollection of how, at the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks came to requisition her palace at Tsarskoye Selo

Princess Olga Paley, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, sixth son of Alexander II, has an interesting recollection of how, at the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks came to requisition her palace at Tsarskoye Selo. The Soviet had resolved to occupy the palace for want of premises. Paley