NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Museums · Heritage

In one of the family rooms at Khmelita hangs a portrait of Suvorov, a reminder of the part played in Suvorov's campaigns by Alexei Fyodorovich Griboyedov, owner of the estate from the late 18th century

NB! · Architecture · Museums · Mores

Today Khmelita Has Its Historic Interiors Restored, Furnished with Authentic Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Pieces

Today Khmelita has its historic interiors restored, furnished with authentic eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pieces. This is the lady's bedroom; in the corner, a door to the water closet

An old telescope with a cracked dark tube and a brass guide rod in front of patterned wallpaper and a framed portrait with an inscription.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Science

Seventeenth-century telescope made of recycled paper with Latin text at the Jan Sobieski exhibition in Vienna

A seventeenth-century telescope is on display at the Jan Sobieski exhibition in Vienna. I do not know the story of its origin, but on closer inspection it is plain that the instrument is made of recycled paper with Latin text

Art · Monarchies · Museums · Observations

Two dresses of Catherine II, one with the Russian arms, one a Preobrazhensky Regiment uniform

Incidentally, both of the Empress's dresses are rather instructive as facts in the history of fashion. The first is of silver brocade with silver and gold embroidery. Over it Catherine wore a gold brocade mantle with black eagles. It was the first dress in history whose principal decorative

Two museum mannequins: on the left a white coronation gown with gold eagles and lace, on the right a green uniform dress with braid.

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · People · Humour

Catherine the Great’s coronation gown and a uniform dress from different years of her reign

Catherine II's coronation gown and a uniform dress from the later years of her reign. Let me remind you that she ascended the throne at 33 and ruled for 34 years. And put on a little weight

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Humour

Another Item from the Collection of Catherine II

Another item from the collection of Catherine II. There she is, the madcap Empress

NB! · Museums · Science · Mores

The Gymnasticon: An Eighteenth-Century Upright Exercise Bicycle

Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

Ostroukhov's study of a horse, taken for a Velázquez, proved to be by Van Dyck

Ilya Ostroukhov, former director of the Tretyakov Gallery, acquired in the 1920s an unusual study of a bored horse for his collection, having swapped it for a study of Menippus. Ostroukhov was immensely proud of his purchase, believing he had secured so original a Velázquez for his private collection, until

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Humour

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart. James and Henry IV were contemporaries. Feel the difference

Close-up of a bronze statue showing the back, buttocks and thigh of a nude male figure, with drapery folds on the left.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · Humour

Nude Henry IV as Jupiter in a sculpture at the Louvre

The Louvre holds a sculpture of a naked Henry IV in the guise of Jupiter. Thanks to the statue, we can learn that the monarch had a well-toned behind, while from the front there is, frankly, nothing to look at

Art · Museums · Mores

1650s embroidery with a swastika in the 17th-century needlework collection at Montacute House

Montacute House (near Yeovil in the south of England), famed for its outstanding collection of Tudor and Stuart portraits, also displays a fantastic collection of seventeenth-century needlework. Among the exhibits is an unexpected embroidery of the 1650s bearing a swastika. The sign is often found in the applied art

NB! · Art · Museums · Ethnography