A large aerial photo print with a road and a building at its centre lies layered on the parquet floor of an old hall. A person walks at left; a white unit stands by the wall.

NB!

Aerial site plan laid out on the parquet floor of a gallery room

Bronze inkwell shaped as a bust of a woman with bat wings, a bow at the neck and a small chimera face on the basin.

NB! · Art · Cinema · People

Sarah Bernhardt as a Sculptor: The Chimera Inkwell, a Self-Portrait of the Actress

Did you know that the most famous actress of all time, Sarah Bernhardt, was also a gifted sculptor? Some 50 of her sculptures survive. This fanciful inkwell, for example, is the actress's self-portrait, entitled Chimera.

NB! · Observations · Humour

Perhaps ENTOGRAPHY is my favourite misprint of the day

NB! · Humour

Never has the phrase "to sleep the eternal sleep" been embodied so epically

Charcoal drawing of a black cat standing on its hind legs, front paws on a windowsill, looking out of the window.

NB! · Art · People

Black cat at a window in Leonid Pasternak’s 1936 drawing “Maruska”

Maruska. Drawing by Leonid Pasternak, 1936

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Cinema

Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt on the Mount Rushmore relief, recreated in a studio set for Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film "North by Northwest" with Cary Grant

Painted portrait of a woman in a feathered headdress, wearing a pearl necklace, a blue sash and an order star.

NB! · Monarchies · People

Maria Feodorovna, wife of Paul I, bore ten children and outlived her husband by 27 years

The woman who gave birth to ten children. Maria Feodorovna, Russian Tsarina, wife of Emperor Paul I. She outlived her husband by 27 years.

NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · People · Humour

The Austrian Field Marshal, Diplomat and Writer Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne, Returning from a Military Campaign, Asked His Wife Françoise Whether She Had Been Faithful to Him

The Austrian field marshal, diplomat and writer Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne, returning from a military campaign, asked his wife Françoise whether she had been faithful to him. "Often," replied his wife.

NB! · In the Press · Observations · Pop Culture

Commented for the WOS Telegram channel on some remarkable snapshots from the Instagram of a favourite designer who still cannot bring himself to take up menswear 😈

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Society · People

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.

Stone façade with a triangular pediment and dormer windows under a dark roof. Scaffolding on the left, cars on the square below, a city panorama under a clear sky beyond.

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View from above of a classical building with a mansard roof and city rooftops

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Paris

What I would give to be gazing at the chin of the bronze Napoleon, dressed as a Roman emperor by Auguste Dumont, or at the freshly scrubbed façade of the French Ministry of Justice from forty metres up the Vendôme Column, all for just €3.9…