Bronze sculpture with gilded details, a scrolled railing and a glass lamp beside a marble pillar with a shell relief. Dark storm clouds and a river lie behind.

NB!

Detail of the Pont Alexandre III balustrade under a stormy sky

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Paris

A Reminder That the Most Beautiful Bridge in the World Bears the Name of Emperor Alexander III

NB! · People · Humour

"Comrade Stalin, what did you and Churchill agree on?" "He asked whether I could hear him well."

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · People · Humour

What, in essence, are we looking at?

What, in essence, are we looking at? Nicholas II, in signing his abdication, acted under the influence of swindlers and did not grasp the consequences of his actions

NB! · Observations

Look What I Found

NB! · Faith · Reportage · Rome · Ethnography

A Nativity scene in the window of a Roman city bus displayed at the "100 Presepi" exhibition in Saint Peter's Square on Christmas Eve

Medieval miniature of three large wooden ships with masts and rigging near the shore, beside a stone tower with a red flag bearing a lion.

NB! · Art · London

English ships near the mouth of the Thames lie in wait for Flemish merchants, late 15th century

The English fleet near the mouth of the Thames, waiting for rich Flemish merchants in the hope of seizing their goods. Late 15th century

NB! · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

I cannot say why, but for me Sergey Sharshun's self-portrait from the New Tretyakov collection is Harold, hiding his pain

Painting of a man in light clothes falling or floating in a study, surrounded by an armchair, books, sheets of paper, a skull, a globe and framed pictures. Dark palette with blue tones.

NB!

Falling man amid books, papers and objects in an upturned study

NB! · Archive · Art · Cinema

Drawings by Mikhail Nikolayevich Romadin with scenes for Andrei Tarkovsky's film Solaris

NB! · London · Monarchies · Society · Humour

Boris Johnson: a wicked fairy does not exist, they said; Boris Johnson: the wicked fairy will do you no harm

A wooden chair with an oval carved back and a round seat with colourful upholstery stands on a plinth before an enlarged photograph of a wooden structure.

NB! · Coming Up · Art · Monarchies · Pop Culture

Georges Jacob's Chair from Marie Antoinette's Boudoir to Be Offered at Sotheby's

Sotheby's is to offer a boudoir chair made for Marie Antoinette by Georges Jacob. A magnificent piece of work and, above all, astonishingly untouched by time