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Alice Vanderbilt’s “Electric Light” dress and the Vanderbilt lady in “The Twelve Chairs”

The Twelve Chairs mentions a haughty Vanderbilt lady from a French fashion magazine. “The glossy photograph showed the daughter of the American billionaire Vanderbilt in an evening gown. There were furs and feathers, silk and pearls, a cut of extraordinary lightness and a dizzying coiffure.” In other photographs the Vanderbilt

NB! · Museums · Observations · Nature

A narwhal tusk from the Anatomy Museum of the University of Edinburgh: a marvel, is it not?

Archive · Books · Museums · Observations · Society

I have long wanted to tell you about one project of the Museum of the History of the Gulag: colleagues, together with the Memory Foundation, have created a collection of graphic novellas based on the recollections of people who passed through the cauldron

File on Telegram I have long wanted to tell you about one project of the Museum of the History of the Gulag: colleagues, together with the Memory Foundation, have created a collection of graphic novellas based on the recollections of people who passed through the cauldron of Stalinist repression. The

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations · Nature

A noble stump of Lebanese cedar from the 1st century BC, in excellent condition, which is, however, characteristic of the wood of this species

A noble stump of Lebanese cedar from the 1st century BC, in excellent condition, which is, however, characteristic of the wood of this species. It stands in a place of honour by the main entrance of the National Museum of Beirut. With this venerable relic I should like to draw

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Ethnography

Hippopotamus statuettes from Byblos in the Beirut Museum and their link to fertility

The hippopotamuses themselves are also represented in the Bronze Age galleries of the Beirut Museum. These, for example, found in the Temple of the Obelisks at Byblos, portray an animal the Egyptians detested for its gluttony and its merciless raids on their plantations, and the rather dismissive attitude is conveyed

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations

Lebanese Late Bronze Age cosmetic vessel in the form of a duck, carved from hippopotamus tooth

This duck lying on its back was made in the Late Bronze Age from a hippopotamus tooth, and it is hollow inside. It is a special vessel for cosmetics and a true luxury object, an example of rare Lebanese work in ivory. From beak to belly, the duck was filled

Archaeology · Faith · Museums

Iron Age rhyton in the form of a pig's head from a burial at Sheikh Zenad, found in 1924

The rhyton is a vessel like a horn, fashioned in the form of the lowered head of an animal. This rather rare Iron Age rhyton in the shape of a pig's head was found during the building of a road out of Tripoli in 1924, in a rich

A hand with a silver chain bracelet reaches towards a marble statue torso without head or arms, partly covered by drapery.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

A pull towards museum treasures and a hand beside a marble statue torso

I feel an irresistible pull towards museum treasures. As usual, though

The East · Art · Museums · Society

Barge haulers beyond Russia and Georges Daoud Corm’s 1935 painting “Galershchiki”

Barge Haulers on the Nile. Yes, barge haulers existed not only in Russia: the poorest men towed boats upstream, straining at the harness, in France, Belgium, Egypt and other countries, and in some places this form of employment survived until the 1930s. As proof that the destitute in different corners

The East · Museums · Mores

Realistiscope, or stereoscope, from the collection of the Sursock Museum in Beirut

A realistiscope from the collection of the Sursock Museum in Beirut. More often it is called a stereoscope. In its day this device, devised in the 1850s, was enormously popular. To use the curious contraption, one must press the velvet edges of the mask firmly to the face, holding it

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums

The Sidon Sarcophagi, One of the Chief Treasures of the Beirut Museums

The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

English nightcaps of the Stuart era in the Eastern style

I don't know about you, but I can easily picture myself in one of these Oriental-style hats. Then again, I can picture myself quite well with a Jacquemus handbag too. In fact, these are English nightcaps dating from the reign of the Stuarts, an age inspired on