Back from the South of France, with some new vocab - huîtres, hirondelle, bandes desinées - and some spectacular comic books (aimed at the very small, which suits my level of French reading). Luckily this is France, so even books for the tiny are pretty sophisticated. Fennec
Anyway, it looks beautiful.
Gedeon Grand Manitou
The plot looks a little involved, but it's all very charming.
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For the full moss experience, pay a visit to Wistman's Wood in Dartmoor:
And maids were equally well turned out:
As were poachers in 1840:
Most appealing is the country woman's red cloak from 1800 - the hood, we are told, was used to carry shopping:
Talking of cloaks, this site has an exhaustive history of the cloak, and drawings to help you distinguish between the cape, mantelet, pelisse, paletot and pardessus. All essential knowledge for the cloak wearer.
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Created by 18th-century German mapmaker Matthäus Seutter. Seutter seems to have the most amazing colours in all his maps.
Actually, the first at least is still in print
For those who want a more complete picture than that given in this earlier entry, here is the great Stanley Unwin to explain further. (Found via enthusiasm.)
Hope that's all straight now. On the subject of Stanley Unwin, I never realised that he was the star of a very peculiar Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series, The Secret Service. Apparently every week Father Stanley Unwin foiled someone's evil plan by talking nonsense, and sometimes taking the form of a puppet.
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Merovingian betrothal rings have a lot of charm:
The Egyptians are strong contenders, with a necklace decorated with gold flies:
18th-century England had a good line in spooky mourning jewellery:
Although they might be trumped by 16th-century Italians, who were happy to wear a rock crystal engraving of Tityus having his liver eaten by birds:
The 'Ram in a thicket' from the Death Pit of Ur might not strictly qualify as jewellery, but it does have gold genitals, copper ears and a fleece made of lapis lazuli. Also nice knees:
It's good to discover new ways of decorating yourself, such as this Etruscan ear cover:
But when it comes down to it, you can't beat a Viking hoard:
A map created by Nasa of the first moonwalks of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 - superimposed on a football pitch to show how far they went. Via Strange Maps.
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Beautiful ornithological works by John Gould, from a 1948 picture book.
You can still buy this book here
I’ve linked to Speechification before – a way for people who like radio to find appealing programmes without having to wade through You and Yours and other horrors. Now Watchification aims to do the same for telly, featuring picks mainly from the BBC's iPlayer and YouTube. I’ll be writing the odd post over there, so take a look if you’re constantly feeling that There’s Nothing On: there is, but you have to hunt for it.