Cabinet of Curiosities
1. The Dutch Community Where People Live on Strips of Land in a Lake I had a look and you can rent them on Airbnb too. There s a cluster of lakes all near Amsterdam or Utrecht with the skinny islands! Check out some homes for rent around here or here and also here. And here s [ ]
This week s edition is dedicated to our readers in America. Happy 250, with love courage from your friend in Paris. 1. One of America’s most recognisable corporate buildings is for sale Nearly three decades after it opened as the headquarters of the Longaberger Company, one of America’s most recognisable pieces of corporate architecture has [ ]
1. The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia Photographed by David Jácome The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia, or Las Cholitas Escaladoras Bolivianas, are a group of Indigenous, Aymara, women mountaineers who climb peaks in Latin America. They do not wear modern mountaineering clothing, preferring instead their traditional costumes including polleras, brightly colored, full, pleated skirts with many under…
1. An Idea for Decorating your Bathroom I d like to share my grandma s half bathroom. She calls it the sitting room and she has been collecting little chairs for YEARS and adding them to the walls. Sometimes when I was a little girl I d try to count them all and always lost track. There are [ ]
1. Lovely letter writing prompts from a lovely stationary shop Here s the shop, Assembly of Text in Vancouver. Found via Present Correct. 2. A Museum to cross an ocean for The Museum of Innocence, created by Orhan Pamuk, is a small museum of Istanbul made up of carefully assembled installations which describes the memories [ ]
1. The weird but definitely not AI Designs of Stephanie Temma Hier Funnily enough, she s only on Instagram. 2. The little Scorpion of the French Riviera wandered into my shop the other day and told me her story Interesting lady. Read the full profile by the NY Times here. And yes, she bought some art. [ ]
1. The Crisp Shops of Madrid Spain, like the UK, has a big crisp culture, with fun regional differences in how they’re consumed. In Catalunya for example, you’ll often see crisps and berberechos (tinned cockles) topped with Salsa Espinaler during ‘L’hora del vermut’ (‘vermouth hour’) on a Sunday . Not only are they to be found in bars across [ ]
1. Crazy about these Mixed Media Collages Find the designer Anton Elfilter here. Found via Moss Fog. 2. The Worldwide Sidewalk Joy Map Sidewalk Joy spots are free, curated public galleries, exchanges and displays. Installed in curb gardens, front yards or sides of buildings these projects were created to bring a bit of whimsy [ ]
1. Frasurbane : a popular 90s postmodern design aesthetic titled from the 1990s TV show Frasier a style that draws from more wild postmodern design movements like Grunge graphic design (eg. David Carson), Memphis Milano Deconstructivism, but filters them through the lens of a more conservative and aging Baby Boomer population that was settling down, [ ]
When Jewish art dealer Berthe Weill was forced to close her Parisian gallery and go into hiding during the Occupation of France, she had already helped build the careers of artists like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Diego Rivera, as well as female including painter Suzanne Valadon, African-American sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller [ ]
1. Rarely seen photographs of Josephine Baker at the Ziegfeld Follies, 1936 By the middle of the 1930s Joséphine Baker was firmly established as one of France s brightest stars, and she had high hopes of furthering the great success she d experienced with the French when she was engaged to be in the starry cast of [ ]
1. The other Madame X Portraits When Madame X was shown at the Salon of 1884 it became instantly a salacious painting and a scandal in French society as a result of its sexual suggestiveness. The painting s subject, socialite, Madame Gautreau, refused the painting, and Sargent, depressed and abashed, changed it, painting out the offending [ ]
1. This incredible artist chess set By Artist Rachel Whiteread. Sold at Christie s in 2019 for 10,000 GBP. 2. This archive of vintage lighters (For Sale) Shop the archive here. Found via Present Correct. 3. A box of tortoiseshell sex aids made in the 1930s Made in Japan by the Arita Drug and Rubber [ ]
1. A mid-19th-century French watch bottle (circa 1850) Represents a luxurious, functional accessory blending horology and jewellery, likely created for the European market or high-end export. It typically features a miniature watch movement encased in azure blue enamel, decorated with seed pearls, and housed in a fitted red shell-shaped leather case. Found on the Decorative [ ]
1. Name that aesthetic: Domino Paper (for those of us who find as much joy in a book’s clothing as its contents) The forerunner of wallpaper, domino paper achieved its golden age in the second half of the 18th century. It took the form a 36X45cm sheet of paper that was printed using engraved wood-blocks [ ]
1. How Marc Chagall made the Paris Opera House Fresco Ceiling in the summer of 1964 (and should it be kept there?) On August 7, 1964, inside Hangar Y, (formerly the Chalais Meudon site where the world s first airship hangar was built in the 1870s and is now an excellent art culture museum in the [ ]