Map of the Wind
Created by 18th-century German mapmaker Matthäus Seutter. Seutter seems to have the most amazing colours in all his maps.
April 14, 2008
April 8, 2008
British Museum
A visit to the British Museum always raises the important question: who had the best jewellery? Was it the Romans:
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:
April 1, 2008
Monster Cutouts
More Chinese cutouts, found in a basement in Chinatown, Soho.
March 17, 2008
Dance Diagrams
I don't know why, but I find these notations of various dance steps, from baroque to Morris dances, very appealing, although completely incomprehensible. Perhaps it's the idea that to someone these complicated symbols and figures actually mean "Hop, wiggle, skip here".
January 25, 2008
For the Breezy Uplands
Many people are familiar with London Transport’s long history of beautiful advertising posters – especially as they’ve very sensibly been reissuing some old ones recently – but you may not know that the London Transport Museum has an amazing collection online. My favourites are the ones enticing Londoners out of the city because it's bluebell/harvest/blackberry time, to leafy suburbs and further:
and sometimes much further still:
January 23, 2008
The Strange Story of a Doodle
Steve at The Sneeze tells this very funny story of his attempts to uncover the truth behind an incomprehensible drawing that his dad keeps putting on his birthday cakes. And if you read all the way down, you’ll see that finally the mystery is solved. “The only reason the internet exists is for this conversation to be on it” – I agree. Via Drawn.
December 17, 2007
The Mole and the green star
The Mole is a character from Czech children's cartoons which were shown occasionally on BBC2 on wet afternoons when I was small. For some reason I remember these beautifully drawn cartoons as sad and frightening, although I don't see much sign of that now – perhaps the fact that the mole has a child's voice and cries realistically made him full of too much pathos. Originally found via Russell Davies.
September 16, 2007
Monks at Play
The Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln (found via Mrs Deane) is a collection of beautiful old glass-plate photographs put online by a Swiss Benedictine Abbey. I don't speak German but there definitely seems to be a subsection scattered through the site, which you might call Monks Mucking About:
September 10, 2007
Peculiar and Breakable
The Corning Museum of Glass seems to be full of the most unexpected things made of glass, from mechanical theatres:
to a squid:
August 20, 2007
Stern Mottoes
July 23, 2007
Netsuke
Curious Expeditions has a beautiful set of pictures of Japanese netsuke. These are apparently toggles that were used on traditional kimonos – but rather than simple buttons they are tiny sculptures carved from coral, horn, amber etc. My favourite is this one:
July 1, 2007
Matchbox Labels
June 25, 2007
Celebrity Endorsements
June 23, 2007
Skywriting
Did you know that the old-fashioned art of skywriting has been replaced by the quicker, longer-lasting and generally more modern technique of skytyping? Neither did we. Here's a film explaining how they did it in the Thirties.
Unfortunately what people write with it hasn't really progressed:
June 11, 2007
Blacken Egg on Day You Have an Accident
Universiteitsmuseum Amsterdam has a very educational selection of vintage public health posters - the dangers of clothes:
of lack of self-control:
something about electrical monsters:
and a 'smeer of poets', sounds both dangerous and disgusting:
The worst ones are the British anti-syphilis ones, not reproduced here - I can't look at a picture of a nun holding a sad baby so don't ask me.
Continue reading "Blacken Egg on Day You Have an Accident" »
June 4, 2007
Weak Men, Read
Take Campo's Infallible Specific. How could you go wrong? And what wouldn't I give for half a pint of Elegant Bandoline. Actually I think that's some kind of hair ointment but it sounds delicious. I'm afraid I've forgotten where I found these assorted pharmaceutical ads: if it was your site, please let me know.
March 31, 2007
Postcards from Smalltown America
From Penny Postcards, via.
A lot of these towns look like they could be the setting for this book
January 8, 2007
Toddlers in Space
December 1, 2006
Stevengraphs
Mechanically embroidered banners for friendly societies, from this site. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.
