Archive · Books · Moscow · Mores
"All four of us sisters wore mourning for two years. Nowadays the proprieties are observed poorly, but in my time everything was done strictly, and according to the proverb, 'count your kinship and render it its honour', kinship was reckoned most exactly, and when a relation died,
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
A few days ago I wrote about the mourning suite of the Duchess of Aumale. https://theparnassian.com/stulchik-iz-garnitura-gertsogini-omal-ili-frantsuzskoi-printsessy-marii-karoliny-burbon-sitsiliiskoi/ https://theparnassian.com/tak-etot-stulchik-vygliadit-s-iznachalnoi-obivkoi/ https://theparnassian.com/delo-v-tom-chto-po-drevnei-traditsii-
Faith · Books · Observations · Mores · Society
The Theodosian Code, which appeared in the early 4th century, exerted a serious influence on the life of Europe, including on relations between Christians and Jews. The words of one of its laws, “it is perfectly clear that the sect of the Jews is forbidden by no law”, for instance,
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores
The thing is that, by ancient tradition, after the death of a king or a member of the royal family the courtiers and the palace were clothed in mourning violet (dark lilac). The upholstered suite from the apartments of the Duchess of Aumale, wife of Prince Henri of Bourbon (Orléans)
NB! · Art · Observations · Mores · Pop Culture · Humour
A young woman helps an elderly lady to dress, presumably her granddaughter. Granny is a hundred times more stylish: lace, pearls, and in the casket patches of every size! Now that is cosmetics, not like Rihanna's
NB! · Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
Dubois Grans and his wife. Note the breeches with the camel toe. No, the eighteenth century does not excuse this hideous spectacle, this positively criminal clinging about the loins! Gentlemen, one simply cannot do this
Archive · Observations · Mores · Education · Saint Petersburg
Fyodor Tyutchev's eldest daughter thought Smolny an unsuitable place for her sisters: "I was struck by the shortcomings of the upbringing given to children in this institution. The education received there was altogether very weak, but the moral upbringing was especially badly arranged." Anna Fyodorovna herself
NB! · Archive · Mores · Ethnography
1880. Costumes of spring, the little sun and the witch. The sun has a golden fringe over the groin area, the witch a skirt of snakes and bats. Accordingly, the little girl in flowers is spring.
Archive · London · Observations · Mores · Humour
An 1860 Ladies' Guide to Beauty offered Englishwomen a curious recipe for reducing the size of the bust. Ladies who were not troubled by any general plumpness of constitution, yet suffered from an excessive development of the bosom, might resolve the difficulty by means of a surgical operation. The
Aristocracy · Faith · Moscow · Mores · Humour
Abdul Mirza Yusufov, christened Dmitry and granted the title of Prince Yusupov by Feodor Ioannovich, once decided to play a joke on the Metropolitan of Moscow and served him goose on a fast day in the guise of fish. The Metropolitan was deeply offended and petitioned the Tsar to punish
NB! · Art · Mores · Humour
Ladies' dress as it was expected to look in the near future more than 200 years ago. Well, the future has arrived
Aristocracy · Archive · Mores
In the memoirs of Nikolai Volkov-Muromtsev there is an interesting episode about Khmelita, where he was born and raised. The estate was home to a water-carrier named Prokop, who had been born in 1799 a serf of the Griboyedovs. Prokop was a universal favourite, and the residents of