These wonderful illustrations are from ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book for Household Management’ which was published around 1861. We, at Mimi Berlin, are always in awe of what people used to call salads. Look at these colorful sombrero-like dishes below, aren’t they just great?! How much fun are they compared to the salads we serve today? Right, SO much more fun!
Elisa Bonaparte, or more accurate and in full; Marie Anne Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy (1777-1820) Princess of Lucca and Piombino and the Grand Duchess of Tuscany (1805-1815) was a younger sister of Napoleon. If you’re interested in that long and acurate name click HERE to find out more about her family life. Elisa was actually a political ruler, click HERE if you want to know the ins and outs about that.
In this post we would like to elaborate on the love Elisa B. had for the arts and we want to focus especcially on a cup she used to drink from. This fascinating cup came in the shape of her own head and it was made by the Doccia porcelain manufactory, founded by Carlo Ginori. This little cup has been reproduced since ages, up until nowadays in biscuit porcelain. Next to drinking from her own head, Elisa B. also, at one point ordered twelve lifesize busts of her own image, made from Carrera marble, which was her property since the town is situated in Tuscany. We, at Mimi Berlin, have to dig deeper into that history some other time ’cause we’ve seen much more of her face on several items.
In the Netherlands this little cup is available only at the Mek store in Amsterdam, thhahanks to Gerard van Riel from Mek for telling us this story.
images via thefrenchporcelainsociety.com / labirintodifrancomariaricci.it
Both text and image found on the interweb: “Typical figure, showing tendency of student life – stooping head, flat chest, and emaciated limbs” – from an 1894 book titled The United States of America.”
We, at Mimi Berlin, especially love the way the bodyparts are described!
This is just one of over 1 million images just released by The British Library to Flickr: The Commons. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/1c14JcN
This image is so pretty, and it comes with a story too: read that by clicking the ‘mymodernmet.com’ link below. But, in a nutshell, it says that Sutherland Macdonald was named the first professional tattoo artist in England, he was operating a tattoo parlour out of London’s Turkish Bath in 1889. We, at Mimi Berlin, think it looks very, very beautiful!
(image via mymodernmet.com) Continue reading
Olive Oatman lived in the USA from 1838-1903, she had a tattoo on her chin which was probably one of the Yavapai tribe. (read the full story below). The interesting part, according to us at Mimi Berlin, is the fact that Olive is dressed in full Victorian attire, just like the Maori women are.
Read the interesting story about Olive Oatman here at https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffagr
(images via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Oatman / http://flashbak.com/44-captivating-native-maori-portraits-fom-19th-century-new-zealand-32789/ https://civilwartalk.com/threads/not-civil-war-the-girl-with-the-tattooed-face.110104/)
Thahanks at Pierre Lernoud (Bertyl) for sharing the image of Ms Oatman on FB.
Uranium Queen of 1956, Brook Robin (image via mentalfloss)
Believe it or not: People used to color glass with uranium (in oxide diuranate form).
Uranium was not seen as being particularly dangerous during the 19th century; so the development of various uses for the element, such as tableware and household items were quite normal. Continue reading