Black and white engraving of a woman reclining with a pipe in a glass-sided hearse drawn by a horse, with the driver on the box.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Pop Culture · Humour

An 1871 engraving shows a Quebec woman riding in a hearse along St. John Street with a pipe

A woman from Quebec caused a sensation by driving down Saint John Street in a hearse, reclining where the coffin should be and smoking a pipe». Greetings to Ksenia Sobchak from 1871

NB! · Archaeology · Humour

When They Suggested Waiting Just a Little Longer After 3,700 Years of Waiting

Marble relief of a seated woman with two children, with a seated man in a face mask and mittens added on the right by photomontage.

NB! · Observations · Rome · Humour

Montage with Bernie in mittens on a relief of the Altar of Peace

Let us hope it is no accident that Bernie fits so well into the Ara Pacis. To all 🧑🏼‍🎄💋

Museums · Observations · Humour

Estonia's top museum award Aasta Muuseumirott takes the form of a rat statuette

The principal museum award in Estonia is called Aasta Muuseumirott, that is, "Museum Rat of the Year". The winner receives a statuette of a rat with its paws planted on its hips. The size of the figurine depends on the rank of the award, and the largest rat

Still life with a metal dish of rolled wafers, a glass of wine and a wicker-covered flask on a blue tablecloth against a dark background.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Still Life “Wafer Rolls” by Lubin Baugin, Painted in 1635

Wafer rolls. Still life. 1635, by the French painter Lubin Baugin. With boiled condensed milk, I trust.

Museums · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

Ivan Grinko in “Etno dialogi” proposes viewing the museum through the concept of totemism

Ivan Grinko of the Moscow Agency for the Organisation of Leisure and Tourism offers, in his article in "Ethno Dialogues", a rather original view of museum totemism. Let us replace the word "totem" in the definition with the word "museum", and it really does

Page of a handwritten register with an illegible entry and the line John Russell, Monzie.

NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Humour

Illegible handwriting of a visitor to Innerpeffray Library in 1878

When some self-important reception-desk outfit presses too insistently for my passport details, I deliberately write in the same hand as this charming visitor to the Innerpeffray Library in 1878. Kindred spirits find one another even across the centuries

NB! · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Can it be that the Duchess of Cornwall photographs books for her blog against a box of Matchesfashion? I do the same when I don't want my house to be the backdrop

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Humour

I Love Moscow Landscapes of the Era of Mass Terror

The famous bas-relief on the façade of the Nikitskaya electrical substation of the metro, designed by Fridman in 1934-35, was popular with several generations of Muscovites for its daring and its symbolism. It strikes me as an excellent opportunity to paraphrase "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of

Gilded relief in an oval frame of reeds showing two nude men swimming and a child running along the shore.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Paris · Humour

Swimming lesson scene on a relief panel from Louis XV's bathroom

A most inspiring relief on a panel from the bathroom of Louis XV. The mood is Versailles. What these nude athletes are up to, I think you have guessed for yourselves: they are staging a highly original scene of a swimming lesson. The child, as is only proper, strives to

Snow-covered winged sphinxes on pedestals at the entrance of a columned museum building with wrought-iron doors during a snowfall.

NB! · Madrid · Museums · Nature · Humour

Snowfall in Madrid, the first in 10 years, closes the National Archaeological Museum of Spain

The National Archaeological Museum of Spain has been given a dusting. For the first time in 10 years, snow has fallen in Madrid. The official announcement: the museum is closed on account of a climatic cataclysm. We would put it differently: what a stroke of luck!

Aristocracy · Mores · Paris · Humour

When the Duke of Vendôme accused Marshal de Bassompierre of plotting against Richelieu, hinting at the marshal's secret marriage to the sister of the Duke of Guise with the words "You will doubtless take the side of Monsieur de Guise, because you kiss his

When the Duke of Vendôme accused Marshal de Bassompierre of plotting against Richelieu, hinting at the marshal's secret marriage to the sister of the Duke of Guise with the words "You will doubtless take the side of Monsieur de Guise, because you kiss his sister, Madame de