Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · People · Humour

Voiture woke Count de Guiche at night to announce that he was married

The Comte de Guiche asked Vincent Voiture, a man renowned for his wit, whether it was true that he was married. Voiture gave no answer. But he came to the count after midnight, woke him and said: "I have come to tell you that I am married". De

Archive · Mores · Society

How Maternity Leave Emerged in the USSR and What Kolkhoz Women Received from 1935

Under the Stalinist charter of collective-farm life, the peasant woman of the kolkhoz receives leave for a month before the birth and a month after it Before 1917, maternity leave did not exist in Russia. Whether a pregnant working woman kept her place depended on the decision of her

Archive · Books · Mores

Leonid Andreyev in “Two Letters” on a childhood craving for gingerbread and happiness that comes too late

When I was a boy of seven or eight, I had a passion for the cheap mint gingerbreads sold on our quiet street, in a little hole-in-the-wall shop; for some reason they were called "zhamki", and for a kopeck you were given two of them.

The Golden Age · Books · Mores

Leonid Andreyev in “Two Letters” on a childhood longing for zhamki and desires fulfilled too late

When I was a boy of seven or eight, I was passionately fond of the cheap mint gingerbreads sold in our out-of-the-way street, in a small shop; for some reason they were called "zhamki", and for a kopeck you were given two of them. And

Archive · Books · Madrid · Mores · Paris · People

Coco Chanel as Abwehr agent F-7124 and her 1941 attempt to seize Parfums Chanel

Everyone remembers that Coco Chanel was a collaborator and worked for the Abwehr, that is, for German military intelligence? This is not conjecture or gossip but a well-documented part of her biography. So, she not only tried, with the help of her fascist patrons, to wrest a perfume company

Art · Museums · Mores · Paris

Bronze “Antique Sacrifice” from the Louvre at the Jeanne du Barry exhibition in Marly and the vogue for the Greek taste

The bronze sculpture "Ancient Sacrifice" from the Louvre's collection at the exhibition "Jeanne du Barry. The Invention of the Favourite" at Marly. The group has been placed in an interior setting rather than a display case, just as in the eighteenth century, when such

The Golden Age · Archive · Books · Mores · Society · Saint Petersburg

The Bolshoi Drama Theatre repeats “The Trial of Raskolnikov” for the Dostoevsky centenary in Petrograd

The playbill of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre announces a full repeat of the staged "Trial of Raskolnikov" on 21 November 1921 On 11 November 1921 (30 October, Old Style) it was one hundred years since the birth of Dostoevsky, and Petrograd marked the writer's jubilee. A

Archaeology · Mores

Wooden cabinet with a child's necklace of crepundia amulets found in a house in central Pompeii

In one of the houses in the centre of Pompeii a wooden wardrobe has been discovered. Inscriptions in the house suggest that it belonged to a Roman by the name of Cornelius Maximus. The house stands on one of the main streets of Pompeii. The researchers established that, before the

Aristocracy · Art · Museums · Mores · Paris

Tissot's "The Circus Lover" and Molier's Private Circus in Paris in 1880

James Tissot, "Women of Paris: The Circus Lover", 1885, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Tissot's "Woman in Paris" series consisted of 15 large canvases in which the artist portrayed Parisian women of different classes and occupations: a shop girl, a bridesmaid, a society lady

Observations · Mores · Pop Culture · Ethnography · Humour

Rachel Sterling eats her mother Diana Rigg's ashes before every first night

Endocannibalism is the scientific name for the eating of the remains of deceased members of one's own social group or family. The Yanomami of the Amazon add the ashes of a dead relative's bones to banana soup and consume it so that the spirit of the

London · Mores · People

The White Mouse cocktail from London's The Stafford hotel and the life of spy Nancy Wake

Thirty millilitres of saffron gin, fifteen millilitres of fresh lemon juice, fifteen millilitres of honey and rosemary syrup, dry champagne and a star anise for garnish. The White Mouse cocktail is named after the legendary Nancy Wake, the most decorated servicewoman of the Second World War. The Gestapo nicknamed her

Black-and-white group photograph of people in masquerade costumes with fans and headdresses, some seated on a floor covered with confetti.

The Golden Age · NB! · Archive · Moscow · Mores

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century

A costume evening at one of the Moscow theatres in the early twentieth century