Aristocracy - The Parnassian (Page 32)

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Observations · Heritage

The grand staircase of Princess Olga Paley's neoclassical Palace in Tsarskoye Selo

The grand staircase of Princess Olga Paley's neoclassical Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. A Russian Trianon in utter dereliction, it now belongs, it seems, to some orthopaedic institute or other

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · London · Mores · Humour

Symptoms of Debauchery: Maria Anne Fitzherbert and Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire (the one with the larger jewellery) at the theatre, 1794

Symptoms of Debauchery: Maria Anne Fitzherbert and Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire (the one with the larger jewellery) at the theatre, 1794. Sometimes intraspecific competition drives one to extreme measures

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Heritage

The tiara originally belonged to Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, who had no children, and after her death in 1956 the jewel passed to her godson, the Duke of Gloucester

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Pop Culture

Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester, tries the Cartier Indian tiara with diamonds and pearls on a child

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores

On first meeting his future wife, Caroline of Brunswick, the Prince of Wales, George, was so dismayed by her unprepossessing looks that he asked for a glass of brandy to restore himself

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Mores

The sad and even chilling tomb of Alice, the 18-year-old wife of the English aristocrat Alexander Denton, with a swaddled infant at her feet: she died in childbirth

Aristocracy · Mores · People · Humour

Scottish aristocrat Jean Johnston Buchan, 80, married a fourth time in 1732, to an 18-year-old

Jean Johnston Buchan claimed that she owed her longevity to changing husbands. In 1732 the 80-year-old Scottish aristocrat married for the fourth time, her husband being an 18-year-old youth

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

In 1561 a young French nobleman, Pierre de Bocosel de Chastelard, found himself in the retinue of the eighteen-year-old Mary Stuart as she returned from France to Scotland

In 1561 a young French nobleman, Pierre de Bocosel de Chastelard, found himself in the retinue of the eighteen-year-old Mary Stuart as she returned from France to Scotland. In the course of the journey Pierre grew close to the queen and won her favour, so much so that

Aristocracy · Art · Mores · Humour

The ladder of women's titles in the 18th century, from mistress to duchess

Girls of the eighteenth century chase after titles. At the very bottom of the ladder lies an ordinary mistress with her bosom bared, unable to rise; one rung above her is a baronet's wife, who has been overtaken by a baroness, above whom looms a viscountess, and higher

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Museums · Mores

This spinning wheel was presented to Queen Victoria in 1866 by her close friend and longtime Mistress of the Robes, the Scottish aristocrat Anne Murray, Duchess of Atholl, by then a widow herself

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

Mr Bean in William Hogarth's "The Toilette" of 1743

Mr Bean in William Hogarth's "The Toilette" of 1743. The acknowledged master of irony at the expense of the English aristocracy could hardly have imagined that his picture would still be raising a laugh more than 200 years later

Aristocracy · The East · Observations · Ethnography

The author has launched a new Telegram channel on the history and society of medieval Asia

Well, don't laugh, but I have started another channel. This time it is about the history of medieval Asia. I shall be writing about what, regrettably, was missing from my textbooks: the aristocracy of the East, the origins of the customs of rank and estate, the reverse side