Aristocracy · Books · Mores · People

If we are to believe that the prototype of the Queen of Spades was the old Princess Golitsyna, then we must of course bear in mind: Natalya Petrovna was one of the most beautiful women of her time, in Paris she was called the Muscovite Venus, Emperor Geor

If we are to believe that the prototype of the Queen of Spades was the old Princess Golitsyna, then we must of course bear in mind: Natalya Petrovna was one of the most beautiful women of her time, in Paris she was called the Muscovite Venus, Emperor George II gave

NB! · Books · People

In honour of Pushkin's birthday, let us recall one of the most popular covers of "The Queen of Spades"

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · People · Humour

An amusing photograph of Labour Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald looking thoroughly ill at ease in court dress

An amusing photograph of Labour Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald looking thoroughly ill at ease in court dress. Note in particular those wonderful little feet

Science · Paris · People

In 1908 Ilya Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize for his work on immunisation: in his time he had discovered, in the larva of a starfish, mobile cells that destroy foreign bodies

In 1908 Ilya Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize for his work on immunisation: in his time he had discovered, in the larva of a starfish, mobile cells that destroy foreign bodies. The discovery of phagocytes made no proper impression on the scientific world, either in Russia or in the West.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · People

The sullen child in the photograph is Nicholas II's firstborn, Grand Duchess Olga, the only one of the Emperor's children to have seen her great-grandmother Queen Victoria in person

NB! · Monarchies · People

Prince Harry and Nicholas II: 120 Years On

NB! · Art · People

The alarming little fellow with his tongue poking out, lurking between the legs of Venus, is no mere lecherous child but the offspring of a Satyr, come to seduce the goddess

The alarming little fellow with his tongue poking out, lurking between the legs of Venus, is no mere lecherous child but the offspring of a Satyr, come to seduce the goddess. Annibale Carracci, 1588

NB! · Observations · Society · People

Thomas, father of Alexandre Dumas, was the son of a slave; in 1793 he was appointed a brigadier general of the revolutionary armies

Thomas, father of Alexandre Dumas, was the son of a slave; in 1793 he was appointed a brigadier general of the revolutionary armies. In that same year the US Senate passed the Fugitive Slave Act. Europe and the States are, after all, very different

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · People

The child's dragoon uniform of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, first President of the French Republic and nephew of Napoleon

The child's dragoon uniform of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, first President of the French Republic and nephew of Napoleon. From the celebrated collection of fine objects assembled by Émile Hermès, now on display at Versailles

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · People

Only by looking at the wax portrait of Louis XIV can one grasp how innocent and charming all other statues and death masks are, even the eyeless ones

Two antique black leather shoes on stands in a museum display, one with straps and a buckle.

NB! · Museums · Observations · People · Humour

Talleyrand's orthopaedic shoes that compensated for his lameness

Talleyrand's celebrated shoes, compensating, as far as may be, for his lameness. One thing can be said: in 200 years orthopaedics has come a very long way.

NB! · Archive · Books · People · Humour

Virginia I do love a smoke Woolf, photographed by her friend and patroness Lady Ottoline Morrell, for many years the benefactress of the Bloomsbury Group and the lover of Bertrand Russell and Dora Carrington