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Traditional British Christmas Pudding Recipe by Pen Vogler from the Charles Dickens Museum Ingredients
Method Mix together well, add 1 medium grated apple, mix again, beat three eggs plus 140ml brandy, add to dry mixture, stir together well. Grease pudding basin with butter, cut a small piece of grease proof paper to cover bottom, pack in pudding, cover with parchment another round of grease proof paper, cover with large squares grease proof paper and tin foil, tie up tightly with string and make string handle to prevent water from invading pudding. Set on saucer in large covered pan, water half way up pudding basin and boil for 3 ½ hours.
To learn more about Mrs. Vogler and her cooking adventures, click here. Click here to purchase a copy of Christmas with Dickens by Pen Vogler. Home Top of Pg. Archives
Country House Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
Method
Top of Pg. Archives  Titian – Charles V “The Leda, in the Colonna palace, by Correggio, is dead-coloured white and black, with ultramarine in the shadow ; and over that is scumbled, thinly and smooth, a warmer tint,—I believe caput mortuum. The lights are mellow ; the shadows blueish, but mellow. The picture is painted on panel, in a broad and large manner, but finished like enamel : the shadows harmonize, and are lost in the ground. Continue reading Sir Joshua Reynolds — Notes from Rome HomeTop of Pg. Archives
BOOKS CONDEMNED By JAMES ANSON FARRER,
LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW 1892 ———- WHEN did books first come to be burnt in England by the common hangman, and what was the last book to be so treated? This is the sort of question that occurs to a rational curiosity, but it is just this sort of question to which it is often most difficult to find an answer. Historians are generally too engrossed with the details of battles, all as drearily similar to one another as scenes of murder and rapine must of necessity be, to spare a glance for the far brighter and more instructive field of the mutations or of the progress of manners. The following work is an attempt to supply the deficiency on this particular subject. Continue reading Books Condemned to be Burnt HomeTop of Pg. Archives
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS‘ WORKING COLOURS, WITH THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE ARRANGED ON HIS PALLETTE. “For painting the flesh, black, blue black, white, lake, carmine, orpiment, yellow ochre, ultramarine, and varnish. “To lay the pallette:—first lay carmine and white in different degrees: second, lay orpiment and white, ditto: third lay blue black and white, ditto. “The first sitting, make a mixture on the pallette for expedition, as near the sitter’s complexion as you can. Continue reading Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Memoranda on Painting — December 1755 HomeTop of Pg. Archives  1612 First Quarto of the King James Bible
Click here to buy a copy of the 1611 King James Bible HomeTop of Pg. Archives
Gary Kravit is an airline pilot and artist. He also owns and operates https://theultimatetaboret.com. You may view Gary’s art at https://garrykravitart.blogspot.com/ HomeTop of Pg. Archives  Cannone nel castello di Haut-Koenigsbourg, photo by Gita Colmar Without any preliminary cleaning the bronze object to be treated is hung as cathode into the 2 per cent. caustic soda solution and a low amperage direct current is applied. The object is suspended with soft copper wires and is completely immersed into the solution. In case the object is very soft and fragile or completely mineralized, fine annealed copper wire is wrapped around the object, one to two turns per inch, and electrical connections are made with several turns of this wire. Where there is danger that object might not hold together upon the removal of the hard supporting shell, we have found it advisable to to pack the whole object in clean white sand, after making proper electrical connections, and then filling the containers with the caustic soda solution. Continue reading Method of Restoration for Ancient Bronzes and other Alloys HomeTop of Pg. Archives  Como dome facade – Pliny the Elder – Photo by Wolfgang Sauber Work in Progress… THE VARNISHES. Every substance may be considered as a varnish, which, when applied to the surface of a solid body, gives it a permanent lustre. Drying oil, thickened by exposure to the sun’s heat or a fire, is a varnish and as such has often been employed. It is, however, probable that varnishes, composed of resins dissolved in oil, have been used in very ancient times. But it is beyond all doubt, that when the arts flourished in Greece, the composition of varnish had long been known in India, Persia, and China. It is not then to be supposed that the Greeks were unacquainted with this art. Yet such would have been the case if we give credit to a paragraph in Pliny, who tells us that Apelles was indebted for his unequalled colouring to the employment of a liquid which he calls “Atramentum,” with which he covered his pictures when they finished, and with which substance no other painter was acquainted. Pliny observes, “that there is in the pictures of Apelles a certain effect, that cannot be equalled, and that tone was obtained by means of atramentum, which fluid he passed over his pictures when the painting was completely finished. Continue reading Artist Methods HomeTop of Pg. Archives  Pencil sketch of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake by John Partridge (Queen Victoria’s favourite portrait painter), 1825 From the work of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake entitled Materials for a history of oil painting, (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1846), we learn the following: The effect of oil at certain temperatures, in penetrating “the minute pores of the amber” (as Hoffman elsewhere writes), is still more strikingly exemplified in an invention, or perhaps and old method revived, Christian Porschinen of Königsberg, at the close of the seventeenth century (June, 1691). He succeeded in rendering amber colourless, so as to employ it as substitute for magnifying glasses. Zedler ( Grosses vollständiges Univ. Lexicon, art. Bersteinerner Brenn-Spiegel) describes the process. The manufacturer placed the amber, already formed and polished for the intended use, in linseed oil exposed to a moderate fire, and suffered it to remain till it had entirely lost its yellow colour, and had become quite clear and transparent. Zedler states that lenses so prepared are more powerful than those made of glass in igniting gunpowder (welche viel schneller in Brennen and Pulver-anzunden sind als die glasernen). The same process was afterwards adopted for clarifying amber beads, so as to render them transparent like glass. The method is probably most successful when the substance is not very thick. For a further account of this invention Zedler refers to Hen. von Sanden, Disp. de Succino Electricorum principe, Königsberg, 1714. Dreme (Der Virniss-und Kittmacher) alludes to similar methods. “Amber boiled in linseed oil is softened so that it may be bent and compressed: opaque or clouded amber by this process becomes light and transparent. The oil should be heated gradually, otherwise, the pieces of amber are liable to crack. ” Such modes of clarifying amber might be employed with effect, preparatory to its solution by some of the means before indicated. HomeTop of Pg. Archives
Before meeting with an untimely death at the hand of an unknown assassin in Rome on January 11th, 1996, master forger Eric Hebborn put down on paper a wealth of knowledge about the art of forgery. In a book published posthumously in 1997, titled The Art Forger’s Handbook, Hebborn suggests the following three books as being the cornerstone to any good art forger’s library:
Thus it would stand to reason that the same books should be of great interest to the international art collector. HomeTop of Pg. Archives
FORMULAS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. Pineapple Frappe. Water, 1 gallon; sugar 2 pounds of water. 61/2 pints, and simple syrup. 2 1/2 pints; 2 pints of pineapple stock or 1 pint of pineapple stock and 1 pint of grated pineapple juice of 6 lemons. Mix, strain and freeze. Roman Sour. Wild cherry syrup, 1 ounce; lime juice 1/2 ounce, and the half of a fresh lime. Place in a suitable glass, and cracked ice and fill the glass with carbonated water. Top off with a maraschino cherry and a toothpick. Hot Weather Delight. Into a 10-ounce glass place half an ounce of strawberry syrup, half an ounce of raspberry syrup, half an ounce of grape syrup, one egg, one and a half ounces of plain cream. quarter glassful shaved ice. Continue reading Formulaes for Re-Creating the Old-Fashioned Drug Store Counter HomeTop of Pg. Archives |
eBay Fraud is Alive and Growing; As Customer Service Increasingly Gets Worse
eBay has decided that robotic phone messages routing their sellers or buyers back to an online FAQ is acceptable. IT IS NOT. eBay is now killing off the last of its customer service as their profits continue to dwindle. The latest insults to sellers comes in the way of algorithmic [...] Read more → 
Disney is Dead: The Politics of Brands and Why Profitable Brands Remain Neutral
Disney should stick to its Theme Parks and remain neutral in matters of culture. Go Woke, Go Broke. Even Bob Eisner loving CNBC will not be able to do enough DeSantis bashing to stop the financial bloodbath. Much like football fans and Bud Lite Drinkers, millions [...] Read more → 
The Devil PigHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
The 2023 U.S. Banking Crisis is Already Multiple Magnitudes Larger than that of 2008.
Credit Suisse HQ, Zurich Switzerland Hypothesis: The U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. Government has become extremely adept at obscuring facts from Americans and the World at Large when it comes to financial crisis handling. On March 31, 2016 the following headline appeared in Reuters: U.S. repo rates jump to highest level since [...] Read more → 
The True and Correct History of DJ Vinyl Scratching
New York is well known for hotdogs, the Empire State Building, the Ponzi Scheme, and the Brooklyn Bridge among its many claims to fame. However, contrary to popular belief, DJ vinyl scratching is not one of them. Caveat; Most New Yorkers in fact believe the phenomena originated there. In the [...] Read more → 
Artistic Endeavour in the Absence of Country Gentlemen
The Garden at Somersby Rectory by W.E.F. Britten When one thinks of the English countryside or rural France replete with rambling country house estates and fairly tale chateaus sitting alongside grand chapels and country church spires, one might imagine a realm of manners, neighborly love, and country gentlemen. However, history informs us [...] Read more → 
Why Beauty Matters
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas – from Ghost Stories of M.R. JamesI Verum usque in præsentem diem multa garriunt inter se Canonici de abscondito quodam istius Abbatis Thomæ thesauro, quem sæpe, quanquam adhuc incassum, quæsiverunt Steinfeldenses. Ipsum enim Thomam adhuc florida in ætate existentem ingentem auri massam circa monasterium defodisse perhibent; de quo multoties interrogatus ubi esset, cum risu respondere solitus erat: “Job, [...] Read more → 
The Age of Chivalry
CHAPTER 1 – Introduction KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS On the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost destitute of a national government. Numerous chiefs, more or less powerful, held local sway, as far as each [...] Read more → 
The History of Witchcraft in England – The Beginnings
The Beginnings of English Witchcraft It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect—the fact that the belief in witchcraft is no longer [...] Read more → 
Gold: The Story of Man’s 6000 Year Old ObsessionHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Secretariat Wins the Triple CrownHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Uncle Sam Provides I-Bond Relief for U.S Savers; Why Are the Banks Not Joining in the Glory?
Are you dissatisfied with the Savings Account and CD Interest Rates your bank currently has on offer? If so, go to https://www.treasurydirect.gov and open an account. The U.S. Government’s iBonds are currently earning 9.62% interest through October of this year. Individuals may purchase $10,000 worth of iBonds per [...] Read more → 
Inflation Economics: Some Useful Historical Data For The American Consumer
The rude awakening over the past year of increasingly high food and gas prices has been quite the shock for the American consumer. The U.S. Federal Government and Federal Reserve Bank’s sluggish reaction to growing consumer price inflation certainly have not helped. If history is to be our guide, there is more [...] Read more → 
FTC Rules Guiding the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries
The Hope Diamond FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION16 CFR Part 23Guides for the Jewelry, PreciousMetals, and Pewter Industries The US Government has laws guiding the business practices of the Jewelry and Precious Metals Industries. If you are unclear as a seller as to your obligations under the law as related to any [...] Read more → 
The History of Gothic Art
History and Facts on American Newspaper Production from the Colonial Times Through the 1890s.
New York Times Press Run circa 1942 – Library of Congress Photograph NEWSPAPER.-Printed sheets published at stated intervals, chiefly for the purpose of conveying intelligence on current events. The Romans wrote out an account of the most memorable occurrences of the day, which were sent to public officials. They were [...] Read more → 
Penal Methods of the Middle Ages
CHAPTER I PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Prisons as places of detention are very ancient institutions. As soon as men had learned the way to build, in stone, as in Egypt, or with bricks, as in Mesopotamia, when kings had many-towered fortresses, and the great barons castles [...] Read more → 
Son House – Death Letter BluesHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
The Rolling Stones – Brown SugarHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Two Great Ideas for Product Photography
Country House Essays Book Now in Print
Country House Essays, the book is now in print. This is an eclectic collection of both original, and historical essays, poems, books, and articles created for our loyal reader hear at CountryHouseEssays.com. It is jam packed with reprints of articles from this website. The cost is $49.95 for this massive [...] Read more → 
Clarivoyance by C.W. Leadbeater
Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, India, 1890 CLAIRVOYANCE by C. W. Leadbeater Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Pub. House [1899] CHAPTER IX METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT
When a men becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable [...] Read more → 
Westminster Confession of Faith – 1646
CHAPTER I. Of the Holy Scripture. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary [...] Read more →
The Geologists and The Mother-lodeHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
The Relation of Chemistry to the progress of Wine Making, Brewing, and Distilling
Harvey Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Chemistry (third from the right) with his staff, not long after he joined the division in 1883. Wiley’s scientific expertise and political skills were a key to passage of the 1906 Food and Drugs Act and the creation of the FDA. Read more → 
A Note on Ill-Breeding from a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem
“Saint John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem,” black and white photograph by the British photographer Henry Dixon, 1880. The church was founded in the 12th century by Jordan de Briset, a Norman knight. Prior Docwra completed the gatehouse shown in this photograph in 1504. The gateway [...] Read more → 
Growing Muscadine Grapes in Tennessee
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee has a long heralded tradition of assisting farmers and growers through it’s Agricultural Extension Service. The following bulletin entitled Grape Growing in Tennessee discusses the Muscadine variety of grapes among others. Muscadine grapes are often found growing wild in Tennessee. On my grandfather’s West Tennessee [...] Read more → 
Homemade Wine Recipes from the 16th and 17th Centuries
The Lost Art of Wine Making at Home Some Recipes Popular a Century Ago Revived to Show How Our Forefathers Brewed Their Own Beers, Made Their Own Ciders, Distilled Their Own Liquors. The manufacture of homemade liquors is all but a lost art. A century ago every farm [...] Read more → 
Platform of the American Institute of Banking in 1919
Resolution adapted at the New Orleans Convention of the American Institute of Banking, October 9, 1919: “Ours is an educational association organized for the benefit of the banking fraternity of the country and within our membership may be found on an equal basis both employees and employers; and in full appreciation [...] Read more → 
Parting Words to Kate from The Sloop of War, Jamestown
Sloop of War Jamestown – Photo from book The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series 1, Vol. 3. Several years ago, I purchased a small memory book entitled Album of Love from the mid 1800s. Much like scrap books of today, these books were used to keep [...] Read more → 
Electroplating 101Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
New Orleans Street BandsHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
ZZ Top at Gruene HallHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Historic authenticity of the Spanish SAN FELIPE of 1690
Model of San Felipe Reprinted from FineModelShips.com with the kind permission of Dr. Michael Czytko The SAN FELIPE is one of the most favoured ships among the ship model builders. The model is elegant, very beautifully designed, and makes a decorative piece of art to be displayed at home or in [...] Read more → 
The Late Rev. H.M. Scarth
H. M. Scarth, Rector of Wrington By the death of Mr. Scarth on the 5th of April, at Tangier, where he had gone for his health’s sake, the familiar form of an old and much valued Member of the Institute has passed away. Harry Mengden Scarth was bron at Staindrop in Durham, [...] Read more → 
Temples, Walls, And Some of the Roman Antiquities of Bath
A Lecture Delivered at the Guildhall, March 2, 1853 by Rev. H.M. Scarth, M.A., Rector of Bathwick. To understand the ancient history of the country in which we live, to know something of the arts and manners of the people who have preceded us, to ascertain what we owe to [...] Read more → 
Gallop of the Common Horse by Eadweard Muybridge 1887
Eadweard Muybridge was a fascinating character. Click here to learn how Eadweard committed “Justifiable Homicide” after shooting his wife’s lover in 1874. Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
Classic Restoration of a Spring Tied Upholstered Chair
This video by AT Restoration is the best hands on video I have run across on the basics of classic upholstery. Watch a master at work. Simply amazing. Tools: Round needles: https://amzn.to/2S9IhrP Double pointed hand needle: https://amzn.to/3bDmWPp Hand tools: https://amzn.to/2Rytirc Staple gun (for beginner): https://amzn.to/2JZs3x1 Compressor for pneumatic [...] Read more →
Making a High-end Turntable
A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man
The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used [...] Read more → 
Books Condemned to be Burnt
BOOKS CONDEMNED TO BE BURNT. By JAMES ANSON FARRER, LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW 1892 ———- WHEN did books first come to be burnt in England by the common hangman, and what was [...] Read more → 
U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act – Full Text
UNITED STATES PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION ACT TITLE I – PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION OFFICE Chapter Section 1. Organization and Publications . 1 2. Legal Provisions as to the Plant Variety Protection Office . 21 3. Plant Variety Protection Fees . 31 CHAPTER 1.-ORGANIZATION AND PUBLICATIONS Section 1. Establishment.2 There is [...] Read more → 
Thomas Jefferson’s Garden BookHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
American Farming Circa 1954Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Fell and Moor Terrier Club circa later 1990sHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
The Master of Hounds
Photo Caption: The Marquis of Zetland, KC, PC – otherwise known as Lawrence Dundas Son of: John Charles Dundas and: Margaret Matilda Talbot born: Friday 16 August 1844 died: Monday 11 March 1929 at Aske Hall Occupation: M.P. for Richmond Viceroy of Ireland Vice Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire Lord – in – Waiting [...] Read more → 
The Beaufort Hunt – 1914Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Limerick Harrier’s Meet at Bulgaden 2018Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Fox Hunting – A Great British TraditionHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Fox Hunting Season Opens 1935 – Heythrop Country at Lower Swell, near Stow-in-the-Wold, GloucestershireHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Land of Hope and Glory: British Country Life – Fox HuntingHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Feeding the Hounds at Chateau Cheverny
Flawed Law – The Hunting Act
Click here to read the full text of the Hunting Act – 2004 Click on the button below for a faster download version. Invalid download ID. Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
The Famous Kilkenny Hunt – 1930Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Winter Fox Hunt in Michigan, USA – Fantastic FootageHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Fox Hunting Season 1964Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Here’s Many a Year to You
” Here’s many a year to you ! Sportsmen who’ve ridden life straight. Here’s all good cheer to you ! Luck to you early and late. Here’s to the best of you ! You with the blood and the nerve. Here’s to the rest of you ! What of a weak moment’s swerve ? [...] Read more → 
The Hunt Saboteur
The Hunt Saboteur is a national disgrace barking out loud, black mask on her face get those dogs off, get them off she did yell until a swift kick from me mare her voice it did quell and sent the Hunt Saboteur scurrying up vale to the full cry of hounds drowning out her [...] Read more → 
The Billesden Coplow Run
Smith, Charles Loraine; The Billesdon Coplow Run, Leicestershire *note – Billesdon and Billesden have both been used to name the hunt. BILLESDEN COPLOW POEM [From “Reminiscences of the late Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq”] The run celebrated in the following verses took place on the 24th of February, 1800, [...] Read more →  |
    
Bleak City
Exhaust blackened dirty snow Bleak City cold winter sting Cars in ditches Tire chains and rock salt Doughnut shop at four am Factory whistle blows at five Hot coffee on the dashboard Eyes on the road Front wheel drive Cadillac I’ll make it on time Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
The King James Bible – 1611
1612 First Quarto of the King James Bible Click here to buy a copy of the 1611 King James Bible Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
A Red Letter Day with Henry Miller
History of Britain: Rise and Fall of the DruidsHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Making Quality Linen and Canvas Painting Panels
Gary Kravit is an airline pilot and artist. He also owns and operates https://theultimatetaboret.com. You may view Gary’s art at https://garrykravitart.blogspot.com/ Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
New Orleans Street BandsHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Audubon’s Art Method and Techniques
Wild Turkeys – John James Audubon Audubon started to develop a special technique for drawing birds in 1806 a Miill Grove, Pennsylvania. He perfected it during the long river trip from Cincinnati to New Orleans and in New Orleans, 1821. Home Top of Pg. Archives [...] Read more →
Wine Making
Wine Making Grapes are the world’s leading fruit crop and the eighth most important food crop in the world, exceeded only by the principal cereals and starchytubers. Though substantial quantities are used for fresh fruit, raisins, juice and preserves, most of the world’s annual production of about 60 million [...] Read more → 
On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases by Nathaniel Bagwell Ward
Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward What follows is a chapter from Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward’s 1852 treatise on terrarium gardening. ON THE NATURAL CONDITIONS OF PLANTS. To enter into any lengthened detail on the all-important subject of the Natural Conditions of Plants would occupy far too much space; yet to pass it by [...] Read more →
Country House Essays Book Now in Print
Country House Essays, the book is now in print. This is an eclectic collection of both original, and historical essays, poems, books, and articles created for our loyal reader hear at CountryHouseEssays.com. It is jam packed with reprints of articles from this website. The cost is $49.95 for this massive [...] Read more → 
Proper Wines to Serve with Food
Foie gras with Sauternes As an Appetizer Pale dry Sherry, with or without bitters, chilled or not. Plain or mixed Vermouth, with or without bitters. A dry cocktail.With Oysters, Clams or Caviar A dry flinty wine such as Chablis, Moselle, Champagne. Home Top of Pg. Archives [...] Read more →
A Creative Approach to Saving Ye Olde Cassette Tapes
Quite possibly, the most agonizing decision being made by Baby Boomers across the nation these days is what to do with all that vintage Hi-fi equipment and boxes full of classic rock and roll cassettes and 8-Tracks. I faced this dilemma head-on this past summer as I definitely wanted in [...] Read more → 
Rabbits and Badgers – Blue Terrier Trials 1923
American Farming Circa 1954Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
The English Tradition of Woodworking
THE sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact that it is due to uncertainty of purpose, [...] Read more → 
News from the Empire – Jan. 17th, 1851 Vol IX-No.165 – Allen’s Indian Mail
Filed under Miscellaneous. The Jubbulpore School of Industry is so thriving that the pupils, 800 in number, are obliged to work till ten o’clock at night to complete their orders; this they do most cheerfully. They are all Thugs, or the children of Thugs, and the hands which now ply [...] Read more → 
A Video of Upmost Importance for the Sharp Young Man Seeking Success in LifeHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Henry Miller
Copper Kills Covid-19 and the Sun is Your Friend
The element copper effectively kills viruses and bacteria. Therefore it would reason and I will assert and not only assert but lay claim to the patents for copper mesh stints to be inserted in the arteries of patients presenting with severe cases of Covid-19 with a slow release dosage of [...] Read more → 
Money Saving Recipe for Gold Leaf Sizing
Artisans world-wide spend a fortune on commercial brand oil-based gold leaf sizing. The most popular brands include Luco, Dux, and L.A. Gold Leaf. Pricing for quart size containers range from $35 to $55 depending upon retailer pricing. Fast drying sizing sets up in 2-4 hours depending upon environmental conditions, humidity [...] Read more → 
The Charge of the Light BrigadeHalf a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!” he said. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Home Top of Pg. Archives [...] Read more → 
Glimpses from the Chase
From Fores’s Sporting Notes and Sketches, A Quarterly Magazine Descriptive of British, Indian, Colonial, and Foreign Sport with Thirty Two Full Page Illustrations Volume 10 1893, London; Mssrs. Fores Piccadilly W. 1893, All Rights Reserved. GLIMPSES OF THE CHASE, Ireland a Hundred Years Ago. By ‘Triviator.’ FOX-HUNTING has, like Racing, [...] Read more →
The History of Gothic Art
Simon Mann – The Mercenary
List of the 60 Franklin Library Signed Limited Editions
The following highly collectible Franklin Library Signed Editions were published between 1977 and 1982. They are all fully leather bound with beautiful covers and contain gorgeous and rich silk moire endpapers. Signatures are protected by unattached tissue inserts. The values listed are average prices that were sought by [...] Read more → 
AB Bookman’s 1948 Guide to Describing Conditions
AB Bookman’s 1948 Guide to Describing Conditions: As New is self-explanatory. It means that the book is in the state that it should have been in when it left the publisher. This is the equivalent of Mint condition in numismatics. Fine (F or FN) is As New but allowing for the normal effects of [...] Read more →
WaterlooHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Blunderbuss Mai Tai Recipe
Blackbeard’s Flag If you’re looking for that most refreshing of summertime beverages for sipping out on the back patio or perhaps as a last drink before walking the plank, let me recommend my Blunderbuss Mai Tai. I picked up the basics to this recipe over thirty years ago when holed up in [...] Read more → 
The Stuart Kings and King James I & VI to Charles II
Armorial tablet of the Stewarts – Falkland Palace Fife, Scotland. Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more →
Son House – Death Letter BluesHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Cup of Tea? To be or not to be
Is the tea in your cup genuine? The fact is, had one been living in the early 19th Century, one might occasionally encounter a counterfeit cup of tea. Food adulterations to include added poisonings and suspect substitutions were a common problem in Europe at the time. Home Top of Pg. [...] Read more →
Magna Carta: Myth and Meaning – Discussion at the Royal Institution
The Abbots and Barons Leaving Bury St. Edmunds for Runnymeade – June A.D.1215 Note on Watercolour: F.A. Molony (fl. 1930-1938) was a Major in the Royal Engineers. The National Army Museum hold his work. His work was also shown at an exhibition of officers work at the R.B.A. Galleries (Army Officers’ Art [...] Read more → 
Looking for a Gift for the Book Collector in the Family?
Buying a book for a serious collector with refined tastes can be a daunting task. However, there is one company that publishes some of the finest reproduction books in the world, books that most collectors wouldn’t mind having in their collection no matter their general preference or specialty. Home Top [...] Read more →
The History of Witchcraft in England – The Beginnings
The Beginnings of English Witchcraft It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect—the fact that the belief in witchcraft is no longer [...] Read more → 
Indian Summer
We opened the doors on the old Dodge van parked under the big oak tree the old farm house etched with memory ropes hanging down and an old plank swing She kicked her bare feet playfully in the dirt and then soared to the sky Looking out over Illinois corn fields full in growth, [...] Read more → 
King William III on Horseback by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Reprint from The Royal Collection Trust website: Kneller was born in Lubeck, studied with Rembrandt in Amsterdam and by 1676 was working in England as a fashionable portrait painter. He painted seven British monarchs (Charles II, James II, William III, Mary II, Anne, George I and George II), though his [...] Read more → 
Sennen Cove, UK WWII FootageHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Proper Book Handling and Cleaning
The following is taken verbatim from a document that appeared several years ago in the Maine State Archives. It seems to have been removed from their website. I happened to have made a physical copy of it at the time I was looking into the preservation of leather book bindings back in 2006. [...] Read more →
Growing Muscadine Grapes in Tennessee
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee has a long heralded tradition of assisting farmers and growers through it’s Agricultural Extension Service. The following bulletin entitled Grape Growing in Tennessee discusses the Muscadine variety of grapes among others. Muscadine grapes are often found growing wild in Tennessee. On my grandfather’s West Tennessee [...] Read more → 
The Damp Dark Plight of Rainy Day Books
Awakened to mild rumbles of thunder and pounding rain washed down by a steady drizzle and more downpour coating asphalt with mirrored reflections of oily alluvial runoff easing back into a soothing pattern of velvety rain drops drizzling down the foliage encased wrought iron balcony rails Home Top of Pg. Archives [...] Read more →
Sir Joshua Reynolds – Notes from Rome
Titian – Charles V “The Leda, in the Colonna palace, by Correggio, is dead-coloured white and black, with ultramarine in the shadow ; and over that is scumbled, thinly and smooth, a warmer tint,—I believe caput mortuum. The lights are mellow ; the shadows blueish, but mellow. The picture is painted on [...] Read more → 
Cocktails and Canapés
From The How and When, An Authoritative reference reference guide to the origin, use and classification of the world’s choicest vintages and spirits by Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco. The Marco name is of a Chicago family that were involved in all aspects of the liquor business and ran Marco’s Bar [...] Read more → 
Flotsam and Jetsam
Pirate plunder, sailboat trash, cruise ship waste oil cargo leaks, party boat beer cans, trawler diesel hurricane timber, tsunami tin, maelstrom hulls 1452, 1633, 1785, 1823, 1900, 1956, 1989, 2005 skulls, bones, kneecaps, shoulder blade, hip bones doubloons, pieces of eight, gold, pearls, emeralds daggers, dirks, walking planks, broadswords, canon balls sloshing, swooshing, swaying, [...] Read more → 
The Intaglio Processes for Audubon’s Birds of America
Notes on the intaglio processes of the most expensive book on birds available for sale in the world today. The Audubon prints in “The Birds of America” were all made from copper plates utilizing four of the so called “intaglio” processes, engraving, etching, aquatint, and drypoint. Intaglio processes [...] Read more →
eBay Fraud is Alive and Growing; As Customer Service Increasingly Gets Worse
eBay has decided that robotic phone messages routing their sellers or buyers back to an online FAQ is acceptable. IT IS NOT. eBay is now killing off the last of its customer service as their profits continue to dwindle. The latest insults to sellers comes in the way of algorithmic [...] Read more →
Electroplating 101Home Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
On Bernini’s Bust of a Stewart King
As reported in the The Colac Herald on Friday July 17, 1903 Pg. 8 under Art Appreciation as a reprint from the Westminster Gazette ART APPRECIATION IN THE COMMONS. The appreciation of art as well as of history which is entertained by the average member of the [...] Read more → 
The Perfect Salad Dressing
The following recipes are from a small booklet entitled 500 Delicious Salads that was published for the Culinary Arts Institute in 1940 by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc. 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. If you have been looking for a way to lighten up your salads and be free of [...] Read more → 
Carpet Cleaner Formulae
Carpet Cleaners. Powder Form Sal soda…8 ounces av. (hydrated sodium carbonate)( Na2CO3∙10H2O) or soda ash. Borax…….4 ounces av. Both should be in powder. In using, this amount of material is to be dissolved in a gallon of water, then mix this with a solution of a pound of soap (any good [...] Read more → 
Making Linen Fabric from Flax Seed, Spinning Flax, & Weaving LinenHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Seeds for Rootstocks of Fruit and Nut Trees
THE PRINCIPAL fruit and nut trees grown commercially in the United States (except figs, tung, and filberts) are grown as varieties or clonal lines propagated on rootstocks. Almost all the rootstocks are grown from seed. The resulting seedlings then are either budded or grafted with propagating wood of the desired [...] Read more →
A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man
The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used [...] Read more →
Making a High-end Turntable
Gold: The Story of Man’s 6000 Year Old ObsessionHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Books of Use to the International Art Collector
Before meeting with an untimely death at the hand of an unknown assassin in Rome on January 11th, 1996, master forger Eric Hebborn put down on paper a wealth of knowledge about the art of forgery. In a book published posthumously in 1997, titled The Art Forger’s Handbook, Hebborn suggests the following [...] Read more → 
The Fowling Piece – Part I
THE FOWLING PIECE, from the Shooter’s Guide by B. Thomas – 1811. I AM perfectly aware that a large volume might be written on this subject; but, as my intention is to give only such information and instruction as is necessary for the sportsman, I shall forbear introducing any extraneous [...] Read more →
Land of Hope and Glory: British Country Life – Fox HuntingHome Top of Pg. Archives Read more → 
Fly Casting Instructions
It is a pity that the traditions and literature in praise of fly fishing have unconsciously hampered instead of expanded this graceful, effective sport. Many a sportsman has been anxious to share its joys, but appalled by the rapture of expression in describing its countless thrills and niceties he has been literally [...] Read more → 
Valentine Poetry from the Cotswold Explorer
St. Valentine kneeling in supplication – 1677 by David Teniers III There is nothing more delightful than a great poetry reading to warm ones heart on a cold winter night fireside. Today is one of the coldest Valentine’s days on record, thus, nothing could be better than listening to [...] Read more → 
The Stock Exchange Specialist
New York Stock Exchange Floor September 26,1963 The Specialist as a member of a stock exchange has two functions.’ He must execute orders which other members of an exchange may leave with him when the current market price is away from the price of the orders. By executing these orders on behalf [...] Read more →   |
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