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The alleged erotic cabinet of an empress lacks any official confirmation

There is no official confirmation of this find, or indeed of the very possibility of such a cabinet. I have never come across a catalogue or a description of it either, nor even a printed mention in any serious source. Nevertheless, some of these objects have been photographed. Whether they

Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Saint Petersburg

Catherine the Great's erotic cabinet at Tsarskoye Selo and the inconsistencies of its legend

I came across a mention of Catherine II's erotic cabinet, supposedly discovered at Tsarskoye Selo by soldiers at the very start of the war. The story is murky and even contradictory, and there is a great deal of muddle in it. If soldiers found it, what were they

NB! · Observations · Mores · Society

It is a pity that the genre of the deathbed farewell, the bedside conversation, the portrait of the dying man has been utterly lost, especially in political culture

It is a pity that the genre of the deathbed farewell, the bedside conversation, the portrait of the dying man has been utterly lost, especially in political culture. Besides, leaders so rarely die these days. And today is the anniversary of Napoleon's death

Family portrait in an interior: a mother in a teal dress at a harpsichord, the father beside her, four children and a dog on a red carpet.

NB! · Art · Observations · Mores

Family portrait by Troost and the depiction of children as small adults

Troost, family portrait. The children have faces like grown-ups. It is not that nobody knew how to paint a child's face; a child was simply regarded as a small adult. A great deal has been written about this in the history of childhood

Aristocracy · Observations · Mores

A thread on searching for noble roots, where experts meet hostile commenters

Got stuck yesterday in a wonderful thread devoted to the search for noble roots by various inquisitive citizens. It is splendid, in general, that there are places where representatives of noble associations, descendants of famous families, and historians, professional and amateur alike, gather to discuss the origins of this or

NB! · Archive · Science · Mores

Whitworth's machine for sweeping dung and dirt from the streets was invented in the nineteenth century: a cart whose wheels drove brushes mounted on a lifting mechanism

NB! · Art · Museums · Mores · Rome

Carriage of the Portuguese Ambassador to the Court of Pope Clement XI, Eighteenth Century, the Work of Italian Craftsmen

NB! · Art · Mores · Humour

The Viewer's Armchair, Invented Long Before Television

Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour

Queen Victoria and the Fashion for Jewellery Made from Teeth and Hair

Queen Victoria had a strange fondness for teeth. Whether it began when her mother commissioned a gold brooch containing a milk tooth of her eldest daughter, Princess Vicky, or earlier still, the passion grew into an impressive collection of jewellery set with teeth. Among Victoria's best-known pieces

NB! · Art · London · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

A necklace of the teeth of stags slain by Prince Albert, presented to Queen Victoria

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris · People

Gabrielle d'Estrées, favourite of Henry IV, her family and her death in 1599

It is believed that at the time the painting was made, the favourite of Henry IV was pregnant with his first son, who would be named César after Julius Caesar. The pregnancy may be hinted at by the woman in the background sewing children's clothes, and by the

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris