Faith · Art · Mores · Humour

The evening king game in a Flemish painting of the Epiphany celebration

No more for this one! In fact, they will pour him another. This Flemish painting, connected with the celebration of Epiphany on 6 January, captures a game that was popular in the seventeenth century. The man in the paper crown is the king of the evening, chosen by lot. For

Books · Mores · Humour

Preparing Salad Olivier to the recipe of Elena Molokhovets:

hazel grouse, calf's tongue, pressed black caviar (payusnaya), fresh lettuce, boiled crayfish, lobster, pickles (small marinated vegetables), Kabul soy (an old fermented seasoning made from soya beans), cucumbers, capers, hard-boiled eggs, sauce Provençale, salt. In principle, pressed caviar can be replaced by bottarga, the crayfish and lobster

Archive · Mores

Instant biscuits, spun sugar, vanilla, cream, butter and chocolate wafers, cucumber cakes: the Soloviev Brothers, without the slightest competition, under their own supervision

A confectioner's stall on the Kotorosl Embankment in Yaroslavl in the 1910s

Black-and-white photograph of a large crowd in old Russian costume standing on a staircase in a hall with columns and a large chandelier.

Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Saint Petersburg

Nicholas II in his diary on the famous ball at the Winter Palace

Group photograph of the guests at the court masked ball held in the Hermitage on 13 February 1903 to mark the 290th anniversary of the House of Romanov, at which the whole nobility of the Russian Empire appeared in costumes of the pre-Petrine era. The hall, filled with ancient

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

Prince Edward, the future Duke of Kent, and Princess Alexandra play with inflatable toys on the grass under the supervision of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, at their residence, Coppins, in Buckinghamshire, in October 1940

Prince Edward, the future Duke of Kent, and Princess Alexandra play with inflatable toys on the grass under the supervision of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, at their residence, Coppins, in Buckinghamshire, in October 1940. I have never before seen inflatable figures used for play away from the water

NB! · Archive · Faith · Mores · Society

In 1951 a group of Catholic activists hanged, and then burned, a wooden effigy of Santa Claus before several hundred children, in protest at the paganisation and commercialisation of the Nativity of Christ

In 1951 a group of Catholic activists hanged, and then burned, a wooden effigy of Santa Claus before several hundred children, in protest at the paganisation and commercialisation of the Nativity of Christ. The action was a one-off and, as we can see 75 years on, did not achieve

Books · Observations · Mores

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children

Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims / Fruits of Solitude. William Penn, 1693

NB! · Archive · Mores

Swimming Lesson, Vienna, 1911

NB! · Observations · Mores

Why do women so rarely wear their hair in the style of the 1920s nowadays?

Observations · Mores · Paris · People

I had never before met such an original definition

Coco Chanel was dubbed a "horizontal collaborator" from the Ritz, a hint at her long liaison with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German lawyer and NSDAP official who was also, in his spare time, a secret agent and special representative attached to the Reich Ministry of Propaganda.

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Mores

A Salon at the Arkhangelskoye Estate in the 1890s

Archaeology · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

President of Finland Tarja Halonen in the historical Eura dress at the annual Independence Day reception in 2001

President of Finland Tarja Halonen in the historical Eura dress at the annual Independence Day reception in 2001. The dress is an exact reconstruction of the attire of a Viking Age woman, found in a Viking burial at Eura in western Finland. Just imagine loving your country and your people