A Tiffany Punch Bowl

Loretta reports:

I thought it was time for another spectacular item from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection of Art Nouveau works.  We’ve looked at furniture, jewelry, and more jewelry.

Today I present for your viewing pleasure the Tiffany Punch Bowl with Three Ladles.

Some may say it’s over the top—but then, a great deal in this collection falls into that category, and I’m with Mae West:  “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”

Not to mention that anybody who’s taken a gander at the Prince Regent’s decor  at the Royal Pavilion will probably bear this sort of thing with fortitude.

Since the accompanying card had so much interesting information, and Art Nouveau is not my area of expertise, I’ll let the museum do the talking.

But I will say that no photograph can do it justice.  If you're in the Richmond area, I strongly recommend a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

An Afternoon in St. James's Park, c. 1745

Isabella reporting,

This is one of my favorite paintings of 18th c. London: St. James's Park and the Mall, attributed to Joseph Nickolls (active 1726-55). One picture truly can be worth a thousand words when it's as packed with this much detail and vitality.

The centerpiece of this painting is Frederick, Prince of Wales, detail above, strolling through the Park with his noble entourage. He's easy to spot: he's front and center, dressed in a red, gold-trimmed waistcoat and breeches with his Garter Star on the front of his blue coat. To the left is the park's milk-bar, complete with cows, and a fixture for park-goers looking for healthy refreshment. The London landmarks of Whitehall Palace and Westminster Abbey are visible in the background.

But it's all the other people around the prince that make the picture so much fun to study. There are soldiers from three different regiments and sailors on shore-leave, an amorous couple drawing disapproving glances, detail right, a woman tying her stocking, detail lower left, another lady whose hoops have flipped up as she sat, and a man relieving himself over a fence. Intriguingly, there's a well-dressed woman of color in one of the groups. This painting is a bit like a Georgian "Where's Waldo?": the more you study it, the more  you discover.

Since Blogger will enlarge an image just so far, here's a link to a much, much larger version so you can explore the details for yourself. The painting now belongs to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and its web page goes into considerable (and for us Nerdy History Folks, quite fascinating) detail about the history of the Park as well as more information about the people shown.

St. James's Park and the Mall, attributed to Joseph Nickolls, c. 1745. Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Miseries of Life: Writing

View at source here

Loretta reports:

My post title refers not my personal writing miseries, but those of the perennial sufferers Timothy Testy and Samuel Sensitive, in James Beresford's extremely popular The Miseries of Human Life.  I've excerpted from this book before* and will again, because it shows how human miseries have and haven't changed since the early 19th century. The perils of writing, for instance.  Mending pens is a skill few of us can boast. These days, our trials and tribulations tend to be keyboard and touchscreen related.  Even when we do take up pencil or pen, our frustrations are not the same.  And yet I can relate to the caricature of the bad pens.  I'm still looking for The Perfect Pen.

In the meantime, we can decide whether we do or do not prefer the writing miseries of Jane Austen's time.

View at source here

—The Miseries of Human Life; or The Groans of Timothy Testy, and Samuel Sensitive [by J. Beresford].  James Beresford 1806.  Courtesy Internet Archive.

* Here, here, here, and here.

Breakfast Links: Week of April 21, 2014

Fresh for you - our weekly round-up of fav links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, all gathered from around the Twitterverse.
• In NYC in April 17, 1922, a "Fine Old Easter Parade Lost in Flapper Swarm."
• A peek inside the mother-daughter collaboration that brought us the Little House books - and how very different they would have been if Laura Ingalls Wilder had published her original manuscript.
• This changes everything: the 18th c. cheer "Huzzah!" was actually pronounced "Huzzay!"
• Buying milk in St. James's Park & Georgian London.
• Five fascinating facts about the Brontë sisters.
• Image: Wall Street and the Tontine Coffee House, New York, 1797.
• Dying for honor: the duel in 18th c. Dublin.
• Did Paul Revere's famous ride really matter on April 19, 1775?
• Traditionally Rome was founded on April 21st, 753 BC.
• "A d_m cock-eyed b_": insults, nudity, subversion, and resistance: wild 19th c. workhouse women.
• How a female architecture student saved skyscraper Manhattan in 1978 - and how in the subsequent reporting she was always referred to as a male.
• Image: Medieval marginalia moment: rabbits vs. humans (and the rabbits are winning.)
• In photographs: 150 years of the famous John Lewis store in London.
• Jane Austen goes to war - in World War One.
• The lacquered look in 1930s hair.
• Shakespeare, a boar's head, and pickled herrings.
• Chiswick House and gardens, 1729-31 - eight views by Peter Rysbrack.
• Retro landmark: the giant 1948 Haines Shoe House in Hallam, PA.
• New York's lost, lavish 1895 Proctor's Pleasure Palace.
• St. George: patron saint of manliness.
• Image: Hound & hare: cartoon-like simplicity in 12th c. Church of St. Mary & St. David, Kilpeck, UK.
• A group of chickens can be known as a peep. Really. Discover more unusual collective nouns.
• Noisy neighbors were much the same 500 years ago.
• The double life of American Civil War soldier and spy Emma Edmonds, alias Private Frank Thompson.
• Hmmm...did NYC booksellers really find Shakespeare's annotated dictionary?
• Digitized online: Lettie Lane's Great Grandparents: 1880s paper dolls with 18th c. wardrobes.
• Image: Old London Bridge, c 1758, two years before its demolition.
• What Gilded Youth spent on a wardrobe, 1907.
• Street fighting men: East Indian Company men draw their swords on each other, Bandar Abbas, 1727.
• The desecration of Hopwood Hall, where Byron wrote "Childe Harold."
• Fineable offenses of naughty 18th c. Harvard students. Tsk, tsk.
• Treating measles in 17th c. Britain.
• Debunked: blood on a handkerchief proved not to be that of the executed King Louis XVI.
• To roast a pike: a 1699 recipe.
• Image: Confederate cartoon offering suggestions on how Union officials might deal with rebel female spies, 1861.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

Friday Video: A 1932 Fashion Show on the Thames

Isabella reporting,

Spring is finally in the air (sort of), so it seems like high time to check out trendy resort wear for warmer weather via a newsreel from 1932. For this particular fashion show, the models' runway is a boat cruising the Thames. I don't know what time of the year this took place, but it does appear that the spectators and the crew are much more warmly dressed than the poor models. As for the famous "film folk" that make a cameo - I'm afraid I don't have a clue. Anyone recognize them?

What struck me most, however, was how modern the clothes looked. These styles were new more than eighty years ago, yet most of them could go striding along the beach now and look just as fashionable. The more things change....

"Father Thames' Daughters": Video courtesy of British Pathé, 1932.