Museums · Science · Mores · Humour
Now you know what the bastard offspring of a stool and a four-poster looks like. This dreadful armchair is possibly one of the most preposterous and uncomfortable pieces of furniture I have ever had occasion to see. And yet so hideous a throne is not merely a monument to
Archive · Monarchies · Mores
To be invited to a feast with Ivan the Terrible is, of course, a sign of particular favour. That said, the Tsar invited the long-awaited embassy from the King of Denmark only after asking for the list of gifts and satisfying himself that they sufficed. The Tsar's
Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · People
Jacob Ulfeldt described Russian court etiquette with great astonishment and displeasure. Ivan the Terrible he portrays as an arrogant, pompous, vain and abrupt man, surrounded by dull-witted boyars and streltsy. The prince, moreover, was wholly inattentive and simply did not listen to the reading of the embassy's
Archive · Monarchies · Mores
Ivan the Terrible receives the Danish ambassadors together with his eldest son. Before the audience, the court officials (pristavs) strictly forbade the ambassadors to recite the titles of their king before those of the Prince of Moscow, reminding them that envoys who had once broken this rule had been expelled
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Paris
Since we have embarked on listing Coco Chanel's lovers, she also had a pre-war affair with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, first cousin of Nicholas II and a participant in the murder of Rasputin. One of the most notorious figures of the White emigration, the Grand Duke for
Mores · Paris · People · Pop Culture
Well, let us go on recalling spies from the world of fashion. Coco Chanel, for instance, was a Nazi asset in occupied France under the codename Westminster. This is hardly surprising, given that she was the mistress of the SS officer Walter Schellenberg, who wore Hugo Boss and in his
London · Mores · Society · People · Pop Culture
In 1940, Anna Volkova-Muromtseva, a White émigré and the daughter of the last naval attaché of the Russian Empire in England, was arrested in London. Anna Nikolayevna was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Volkova was an active member of the Right Club, an opponent of Britain'
Art · Mores · Humour
There is nothing so terrible in such a difference in age. Hans Baldung, Woman and Death
Cinema · Observations · Mores
My beloved Isabella Rossellini reports from the set of "Domina" on the story of Livia Drusilla, together with the director Claire McCarthy. In the photograph her coiffure does not much resemble a wasps' nest, the shape of which was extremely popular among her heroine's contemporaries,
Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
Downton Abbey throws open its doors once more: a feature-length film based on the plot of the eponymous series has been released. The Crawley family, in full strength, awaits an exalted visit from the royal couple, and the vicissitudes of the plot are chiefly bound up with preparations for
Museums · Mores · People · Humour
The jacket of the famous fat man Edward Bright, which could accommodate seven people: the star exhibit of the museum of this rosy-cheeked provincial giant of the eighteenth century, who lived to be only 29. A rather restrained and modern style, it must be said. An idea for an
Archive · Mores · People · Humour
How can the suit of a very fat man serve the public? When in 1750 the 29-year-old Edward Bright, a stout fellow of Maldon in England, famed for nothing but his remarkable weight, departed this life, the townsfolk acquired a diverting attraction: to squeeze seven persons into Bright&