iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Rosemary Griggs @ragriggsauthor.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Tiles with talbots - an extinct breed of hunting dog - on display in Bath Abbey Discovery Museum. Sir John Talbot,(1387 - 1453, named on the tiles, was a military commander during the Hundred Years War. #tilesontuesday

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Back off! This goose had had enough of your nonsense, in 1686.

a fighting goose in a print of 1686. Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1875-0710-3134

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Alan 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 @bows4crows.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Girl's dress, 1750, Kunstmuseum den Haag I love this. Nearly 300 years old, and the green silk is as vibrant as ever. What a startlingly beautiful thing this must have been back then, and for quite a young (12-14) person too. #fashionsky #dresshistory #fashionhistory #historicalfashion

Museum photo of a rococo (maybe?) style girls dress, primarily in green silk. It has a close fitted bodice, with a very broad scoop neckline. Beneath this, covering the upper chest, is a white fichu. The sleeves are three quarter length, with lace trimming at the ends. The waist is tight and decorated with some 15 or so horizontal bands of fabric in various pastel colours.
There is a small peplum over the hips in the same green silk, and the skirt below this is full length, enlarged considerably at the hips with some underlying structure, and has deep pleats at the top, allowing it to hang very nicely.

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Snuffbox made in China for the European market (c.1750-60), with Earle D Vandekar of Knightsbridge #c18 #c18th #18thc

White enamel box with gilt metal mounts and famille rose figures in landscapes. Monogram in puce surrounded by scrollwork and small flowers on the lid. The box is derived from Meissen originals

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Absolutely LOVE the floral initials in this copy of the works of Apuleius, one of the first books printed at Rome (by Sweynheym & Pannartz) in 1469. The initials apparently added in France, perhaps in the 1480s or 90s. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.2.B.2.1[1124].

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

What's On YOUR Garter? With only 62 characters, spaces included, the very direct letterpress messaging on this silk scrap raises SO many questions! Did the wearer's lover give it to her? And HOW many did they have printed? 🤔 @newberrylibrary.bsky.social (Case oversize GT2128 .G37 1750) #NewAcq 1/2

Detail of 62 characters of letterpress printing (including spaces) on a French 18th c. garter.

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"By a kiss, timid innocence fans the flames of the heart"... Intimate, especially if read while being worn, this text could be cheekier if its existence in multiple meant an entire household of courtesans donned them at once! Did they choose their own messages? Or did their madam do the honors? 2/2

Full garter, steel reinforced band more obvious, also embroidery.

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A man riding a horse, holding a flaming sword, swearing and yelling, and all this on a hand-coloured etching, which was in fact larger as you see here, was a published comment about the abnormally bad weather of 1799 in Europe. Did I mention yet that the riding scene is happening on a beer tankard?

a man on a horse with a flaming sword etc. etc. follow the thread

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Chiswick House: interior views (photography strictly verboten!) #c18 #c18th #18thc

The Blue Velvet Room, with rich silk wall hangings and masses of gilding. The photography police were too passively aggressively vigilant to allow me to take snaps of the Red Velvet Room, where the interpretive guides have gone pretty heavily into the ‘Lord Burlington was a crypto-Jacobite’ theory promoted by Jane Clark (which I’m not sure I buy)

Doorway in the Blue Velvet Room with gilt pediment and over door portrait flanked by gilt putti

Under the central octagonal dome , hung with large paintings over Roman marble bust on gilt brackets

Curved white marble fireplace with gilding

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Getty @gettymuseum.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s Purrquoise’s world, and we’re just living in it. In an *exclusive* interview, he touches down on his international travels, his east coast frienemy, and his starring role in Getty’s new season of the If Objects Could Talk podcast. www.getty.edu/news/purrquo...

Installation view of Purrquoise, the turquoise colored ceramic cat sitting on a gold throne at the Getty Museum.

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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Crime reporting in my time: murder of the jeweler Jan van Wely in 1603, as vividly laid out (featuring eventual execution before large crowd!) by W. Buytewech and Esaias van de Velde.

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Happy weekend! 🦛 ❤️ Two ancient Egyptian blue faience hippos made by artisans some 3,800 years ago! Neues Museum, Berlin 📷 by me #Archaeology

My photo shows two blue-green Egyptian faience hippopotamus figurines displayed on a white museum surface at the Neues Museum in Berlin. The larger hippo on the right sits upright on its haunches with short front legs planted forward, head turned to the left with mouth open, as if smiling. It is 9 cm in length. The smaller hippo on the left lies in a reclining or resting pose, with body close to the ground. It measures 4.8cm in length. Both are decorated with black lotus flower and aquatic river plant motifs. The museum display makes them appear like a mother and her baby hippo! 🥰

Egyptian blue faience is a ceramic material made of ground quartz. The decoration depicts Nile river plants such as water weed and lotus flowers found in their marsh habitat. In ancient Egypt lotus flowers were associated with regeneration as they open in the morning and close at night, symbolising rebirth. Whilst ancient Egyptians were well aware of the danger and destructive power of hippos, they were also seen as an animal with revitalizing power. An animal from the fertile mud of the Nile, fiercely protective of their young, hippos embodied divine powers guaranteeing rebirth. Blue faience hippos have been found in Middle Kingdom tombs of high ranking officials. It's thought they were placed in the tombs to aid the rebirth of the deceased.

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Victoria Haddock @vickyhaddock.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Model and actress Dame Lesley Lawson, better known as #Twiggy, was born #OnThisDay in 1949. She wore this Shirley Russell designed "Poor Little Pierrette" costume in her role as Polly Browne in The Boyfriend (1971). Her performance won her two Golden Globe Awards. #film #costume

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

How to do with books, especially bibles, when you live in a material world? Well, William Hogarth of 18th century fame reminds us of the typical re-using (of bindings). In this case, the leather binding is re-used for a shoe sole. #bookhistory #booksky

A detail from William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1, from around 1735, showing a bound bible and the leather cover with a hole that looks like a shoe. William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1.

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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What would you like to hold for your portrait? Maybe a little bird? Perhaps a cup-and-ball? A wee drum? No. Fetch my sword. (American, 1841, attributed to Henry Inman) www.liveauctioneers.com/item/2399684...

portrait of a young child (maybe 3 years old) in a burgundy dress, drawing a sword longer than its legs

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BOO! k HistoriAAAH 🎃 @book-historia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I found just the most delightfully awful heraldry book in the collection this afternoon, and I am SCREAMING at this absolute mush of the Dürer rhino 😂

A variety of crudely engraved heraldic animals

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

William Hogarth, portrait of the young Horace Walpole (1727-28), Strawberry Hill #c18 #c18th #18thc

Walpole, aged 12, in brown velvet coat and blue waistcoat outdoors. He points to a sundial with the figure of a putto. A small spaniel races to Warner’s him. Gilt wood frame. Hanging against wallpaper meant to look like red silk brocade

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The staircase at Somerset House in the wing that housed the Royal Academy, the Antiquaries and the Royal Society, satirised as the ‘Exhibition Stare Case’ by Thomas Rowlandson #c18 #c18th #18thc

View of the staircase from below with a round window at the top and metalwork balustrades painted blue along the not-quite-circular staircase descending through white plasterwork

Another view, from the side in a landing

Reproduction of Rowlandson ‘Exhibition Stare Case’ (c1811) with Royal Academy visitors toppling down it

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

There's some incredible cat-themed art in this upcoming auction, but this dapper fellow - a cat lantern from China's Qing dynasty - has to be one of my favorites😻 www.bonhams.com/auction/3258...

A blue-and-white ceramic cat, who looks kind of like a Victorian gentleman...?

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Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The c19th aesthetic obsession with all things ferny, scrolls across the brocade of this c1887 gown, the green panels interspersed with dashes of greenery around the bodice and layer of skirt. Some fancy smocking completes the decorative display #museumatFIT #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A view of the bodice of a late 1880a dark sage green bustle dress showing its high plain collar, smocked central section and then white silk brocade with a green fern design creating a lapel effect

Full length view of the dark sage green silk bustle dress which shows how the white fern decorated brocade sections break up the green at the bodice, waist, cuffs and underskirt

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Rosemary Griggs @ragriggsauthor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

70 metres of beautifully embroidered cushions, The Exeter Rondels designed by Marjorie Dyer and stitched by volunteers from Exeter Cathedral’s Company of Tapisers. National, local and church history told in 14 million stitches. Here are a few from my favourite era. #textiletuesday #exeter

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Francesco Guardi, View of the vaulted arcade of the Doge’s palace. Wallace Collection #c18 #c18th #18thc

Small oval painting framed in gilt wood. Vaulted arcade with figures, Santa Maria della Salute in the distance

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Rosemary Griggs @ragriggsauthor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Another of the extraordinary misericords at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon. I think this one’s a dromedary? #woodcarvingwednesday #woodensday

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Gold posy ring, c. 1595-1633 “Mutuall consent gives true content” Dead right. Maker’s mark of Robert Tyte of Salisbury (British Museum)

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

'Amethyst' and 'hedgehog' are not words I've ever seen put together, but... watching an online auction live from Sotheby's Cologne this morning and there it was, lot 587. 11 inches wide? That's big. And selling for 35,840 euros! OK...

An amethyst figure of a hedgehog with silver-gilt mounts, probably Idar-Obarstein, late 20th century.
With silver-gilt paws and head below the amethyst spines, small jewelled eyes, the base marked '925' for silver, within a set of other marks

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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Aurelio Lomi, Portrait of the Dog Roldano, 1597-1604, oil on canvas (Villa del Principe, Genoa). Roldano was a present from Philip II to Genoese Prince Giovanni Andrea Doria. (And the painter, Aurelio Lomi, was Artemisia Gentileschi's uncle)

A handsome white hound on an elegant balcony being groomed by a page

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Bottle tickets (decanter labels) @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social #c18 #c18th #18thc

Enamel and silver labels for a variety of wines. Marshall gift.

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Chinoiserie mirror made for Halnaby Hall, Yorkshire (c1750-160, V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Rocco mirror with elaborate scrollwork in gilt wood, with Chinese figures and houses perched here and there

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Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Found in 1856 during the cutting of a grave for Martha Brown (whose sad tale inspired Thomas Hardy to write Tess of the d’Urbervilles) this Roman mosaic belonged to a 4th century townhouse Lifted and set into Dorchester prison chapel the mosaic now resides in Dorset Museum 📷 Sep 2026 #MosaicMonday

The centre of a geometric polychrome Roman mosaic floor with two heart shaped leaves surrounded by intersecting black squares and red triangles

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neil guthrie @nguthrie.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Table snuffboxes made for Frederick the Great (c1765, c1775-90) from the Gilbert collection, V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Mother-of-pearl, various gemstones,gold, silver and foil in a pattern of rococo scrollwork and flowers

Bloodstone and a profusion of gemstones in the form of a bouquet of flowers

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"Caffe Caffe du mein Leben, dir hab ich mich gantz ergeben..."

Eine Frau sitzt drinnen, an einem gedeckten Tisch, alleine, und hält eine Kaffeetasse in der Hand. Unter diesem Bild steht: "Gedruckt in diesem Jahr"

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Ruff or linen collar, c. 1615-1635 Possibly Northern Netherlands. Initials: "C.Y" in red cross-stitch. (Rijksmuseum)

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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Pages from an early 19th-century children's alphabet, Marks's History of an Apple Pie, published in London between 1835 and 1857 archive.org/details/mark...

Pages with pictures of children with an apple pie, illustrating the text
S SKIPT FOR IT
T TOOK IT
U UPSET IT
V VIEWED IT
W WARBLED FOR IT
X XERXES drew his sword for it
Y YARNED FOR IT
Z Zealous that all good Boys and Girls should be acquainted with his Family sat down and wrote the History of it.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I couldn’t get real flowers going in this porcelain vase last spring so I bought modern porcelain ones instead. Unsure about the arrangement but I’ll work on it. They may not look it but they are extremely heavy!

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Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This Wiener Werkstätte swimsuit from 1917 – photo by Dora Kallman, aka Madame d'Ora (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg) 🗃️

b&w photo of a woman sitting on a bench draped in a cloth, she's wearing a neck-to-knee outfit with sandals laced up her ankles and a bycocket-style hat on her head

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Skot Armstrong @skot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Vintage Schiaparelli perfume bottles. Circa 1930’s.

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Rosemary Griggs @ragriggsauthor.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Here be dragons — and other strange creatures. Benches at St John the Baptist Church, Stamford , Lincolnshire created by Edward Browning in 1856 . 📷 from my summer travels. #woodensday #woodcarvingwednesday

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Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Hems and sleeves saw all of the action in the early c19th, puffs, rouleaux, appliqués all working hard to draw attention to arm and ankle. In object and print this is evident here, both dating to c1815-20 @museemccordstewart.bsky.social #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A side by side image of two regency era gowns, one museum piece consisting of pale pink gauze over silk embellished with satin rouleaux at sleeve and hem and the other a contemporary fashion illustration of a similar pink evening dress also embellished in the same way

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Where on earth have we recently seen this napping and appearing to fall asleep in public again? #NappingInPublic

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Helen Whistberry @whistberry.northsky.social · 06/09/2026

Happy #SciArtSeptember! Today's theme is #coral

Digital drawing of an eel curled around stalks of red coral. The eel is shaded in the pink, blue, and white colors of the trans pride flag.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A Vincennes porcelain 'vase à dauphin', circa 1754. In two sections and a bleu céleste ground decorated with, well, just about everything. I do love the two dolphin handles. Despite the fact it had been broken and re-stuck it sold at Christie's in 2012 for £49,250 (not to me). (see ALT)

From the Christie's auction catalogue lot listing:
A VINCENNES BLEU CELESTE GROUND FLOWER-VASE AND
STAND (VASE A DAUPHIN)
1754-55, BLUE INTERLACED L'S MARK ENCLOSING DATE LETTER B BETWEEN TWO DOTS
Price realised GBP 49,250 Estimate GBP 5,000 - GBP 7,000
The lower part with pierced apertures, the bombé-shaped base applied with two stylised dolphin terminals enriched in gilt scale-pattern, the shoulder with pierced trellis-pattern sections below a feuilles-de-choux rim, the flared flower vase moulded and gilt with a feuilles-de-choux border, the interior rim with gilt scrolls enclosing diaper-pattern, reserved with two oval panels, one painted with putti holding a floral garland, the other with a scroll manuscript within a wooded vignette, in tooled gilt oval cartouches of flowers and swags, flanked by two gilt moths, the base with vignettes of musical instruments and agricultural devices in garden landscapes, within similar tooled gilt oval floral cartouches, within gilt line rims (vase cracked across and restuck, in-filling to cracks, three restored rim chips and further rim chipping, hairline crack to rim of base, one dolphin's tail chipped and cracked and restuck, one tooth chipped, some flaking to gilt rims)
73⁄4 in. (19.2 cm.) high.
This elaborate Vase à Dauphin was probably designed by Jean-Claude Dupleissis père and makes use of the popular rococo motif, the dolphin. The dolphin was associated with the dauphin of France and was incorporated into decorative schemes of the period, possibly following the birth of the duc de Berri, the future Louis XVI in 1754.
Only six examples of this form are recorded: an example of circa 1755-56 painted by Dodin with putti.

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A 17thC Mughal depiction of European man (British Museum)

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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

come to the archive where you can look at historic doodles of a guy fighting two swans

An 18th century ledger showing payments and numbers in a column. In the centre of the page is a crude illustration of two large birds(?) with their tails going up in a spiral, one with spots, the other white. A figure smoking a pipe and wearing a hat and boots is grabbing one of them by the neck. There is a mysterious box next to him which looks a lot like a Looney Tunes style TNT detonator, though obviously that would be ahistorical given the perfectly sensible composition of the rest of the doodle.

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Richard White @rhwhite.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Perhaps you've encountered this vase form in museums, six are here in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's the vase à tête d'éléphant, made at Sèvres circa 1760. It holds two candles, not just flowers. I think it's crazy and arguably ridiculous, but I'd take one if you gave it to me.

From the Met's website:
Elephant-head vase (vase à tête d'éléphant)
Manufactory Sèvres Manufactory French Modeler Jean-Claude Duplessis French 1758–62
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 529
This remarkable Sèvres porcelain elephant-head vase is one of six in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, four of which were given by Charles and Jayne Wrightsman (see 1983.185.9 and 1983.185.10, .11). Presumably due to the technical challenges and cost of making these vases, relatively few were produced at Sèvres, all of which date to the years around 1760; nineteen examples are known in public collections today.

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Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

I have found the Best Doggo* in museum pictures. (1777, Sir Joshua Reynolds (English), Portrait of Mrs. Elisha Mathew, Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas) *(There is not actually competition. All good doggos are Best Doggos)

1777 painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds (English), Portrait of Mrs. Elisha Mathew and a frisky dog, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

An elegant late 18th century lady stands in a pastoral landscape, her unpowdered blonde hair piled high, wearing a palest grey silk dress, the overskirt bundled up and held in place by hands on her hips. Bounding out from behind her skirt is a white spaniel with red ears and spots, its head turned up towards the woman, ears flying, eyes wide, mouth agape in a happy grin with tongue out.

The woman may be standing formally, but the doggo is definitely in Let's Play mode.

A detail of the spaniel. This is a floofy, excited dog in mid-Yippee.

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Annest Gwilym @annestgwilym.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

'All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.' — Virginia Woolf Image by Eliot Hodgkin ('September', from 'The Months'). #september #botanicalart #eliothodgkin

Image of flowers, leaves and other vegetation common during the month of September.

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Elephant with salt. The elephant is late 15thC Deccan, while the mounting was done in Lisbon about 1550. (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Kunstkammer)

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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

What a UNIT

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Victorian Web @victorianweb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#birdsofbluesky Here's something else that says #Victorian at you: domestic stained glass! This is a door panel featuring a robin, photo ©Marilyn Madigan, great-granddaughter of the artist, John J. Jennings (1848-1919). victorianweb.org/art/stainedg...

Rondel with a robin coming to feed its young in the nest, surrounded by leaves and blossoms

Most of the door panel, filling all the space around and below the rondel with spring flowers and fresh foliage, surrounded by a colourful border

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