For those who are listening to ‘The Essay’ on BBC radio 3 this week, and want to know more about the gendered dimensions of early modern espionage, there is #InvisibleAgents (and #Spycraft )

John Keats’s love letters returned to owner after being stolen in the 1980s Romantic poet’s letters to Fanny Brawne, dated between 1819 and 1820, had been stolen from a Long Island estate

Eight autograph letters from John Keats to his “one passion”, Fanny Brawne, and four letters from Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas have been recovered after being stolen: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

I've been writing about Charles I's death warrant today (as one does), so it's nice to see that the digitised image can now be downloaded from The National Archives online catalogue (following the transfer of Parliament's archive collections). discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c7...

Whether or not you have been to the Kederminster Library at Langley Marish (now in the suburbs of Slough), do share this one abd consider visiting. It’s utterly spectacular and worth a long journey. langleymarish.com/stmary/keder... - hats off for them for seeing that is open to be visited.

A cartoon-style drawing shows two cats sitting in front of a pet carrier. One cat says: “I go in, and when I come out I’m at the vet… then I go back in, and when I come out I’m home…” The other cat responds: “Could it be? A wormhole!”

😆

A square cream plate with orange flowers on each corner with a central black text stating "Always trust uour inner witch"

Carrie Reichardt, contemporary UK artist, a figurehead for the Craftivism movement, working in murals, ceramics, screen-printing and graphic design #womensart #Monday

I have some concerns with the choice of picture for this story from BBC News

Ink drawing on cream background of a cat head peeping around a wall with the typed text 'Curious French Cat' below

Curious French Cat, 1956 by
Sylvia Plath, US poet #Womensart

Scribles from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Scribles from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Scribles from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Scribles from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Born on this day in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci imagined ideas centuries ahead of their time.

His notebooks reveal a mind constantly observing, questioning and exploring what could be.

A white lamb resting on a green hill and smiling at the camera. Source: Pinterest, original photographer unknown

🌝

Artist Clare Leighton created illustrations for a version of Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights' book in 1931. They are said to have inspired set designer for the 1939 film version of the novel starring Laurence Olivier #WomensArt

👇 😍

Elizabeth I, portrayed in splendor before gold, with bonus A+ verdure tapestry (matching her own flowers!) in 1563. By Steven van der Meulen, whose day is today.

In the Iliad, Homer checks off the ports from which an armada set sail. But archaeologists had found little evidence of Bronze Age harbors on the Greek mainland—until they surveyed Cape Madness.

archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2026/collection/maritime-mycenaeans/the-unexpected-world-of-the-odyssey/

The Met photo shows a mould-blown translucent dark blue hexagonal-shaped flask (amphoriskos) signed in Greek with the name of the glassmaker ‘Ennion’ (not seen in image). Displayed against a graduated dark to light grey background. The flask has a short cyclindrical neck, hexagonal sloping shoulders curving inwards towards the hexagonal straight-sided body which tapers downwards towards the base. It has two thin handles attached at the top of the shoulders and top of the rim. The mould blown glass has relief decoration associated with the god Dionysus and his retinue on the shoulders and five of the six body panels; double flutes, pan pipes, wine cup, wine jug, and vine leaves and grapes. On the sixth panel is the Greek inscription in three lines of parallel text ENNIWN/EΠWH/CEN translated as ‘Ennion made me/it’. The bottom of the flask is broken in places and the body has patches of creamy brown weathering with faint iridescence. Height: 14.3 cm, width 7.9 cm, depth: 7.2 cm “Mould-blowing developed in the early decades of the first century A.D. as an offshoot of free-blowing. The earliest makers of mould-blown glass probably came from the Syro-Palestinian region, although their wares quickly became popular throughout the Roman Empire. The most famous and attractive vessels are signed in Greek by Ennion; about thirty examples of his work survive today”(Met Museum info label). The flask was excavated in 1876 in Potamia, near Golgoi, Cyprus, by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, entering his private collection. It was purchased from Cesnola before 1879 by Jules Charvet. In 1881 purchased from Charvet by Henry G. Marquand who gifted it to the Metropolitan Museum in 1881.

A 2,000 year-old Roman-era cobalt blue glass flask signed by master glassmaker ‘Ennion’. A Greek inscription reads ‘Ennion made me/it’. He is the first known glassmaker to sign his work.

📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

She was the daughter of Mary Boleyn and the grandmother of Penelope Rich, Dorothy Percy and Robert and Watt Devereux:

Historical hottie du jour: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, showing off his incredibly sharp white outfit (& v. nice dog) in 1564. No wonder Elizabeth fell for him! Painted by Steven van der Meulen.

Title page of “Invisible Agents”

I had such an enjoyable time today @britishlibrary.bsky.social reading about “she-intelligencers” @misswalsingham.bsky.social:

Photograph looking down the corridor of a huge library with arched roof and open rooms on both sides on two floors all filled with books on shelves

Trinity College Library, Dublin, 2004 by photographer Candida Höfer #womensart

Three images of elaborately embroidered book covers with floral patterns and other busy and neat details

Embroidered book covers, fashionable in the 16th and 17th century, the art of embroidering unique covers for books saw a comeback in late 19th-century England, via the Arts and Crafts movement.#womensart #WomensArt

Lost seal of Edward the Confessor found after being missing for 40 years An 11th-century Anglo-Saxon seal belonging to Edward the Confessor has been rediscovered more than 40 years after being declared lost. The wax impression of the ‘Saint-Denis seal’ disappeared without ...

Exciting times for the study 11thC England: the 'lost' seal of Edward the Confessor has been rediscovered in the Archives nationales de France! #SkyStorians #MedievalSky

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.

The picture shows a toy sword, a toy hammer, and a toy weaver's comb. All three are made of wood

A glimpse into #childhood in Roman #Egypt - some wooden action #toys from Karanis: a toy sword, a toy hammer, and a toy weaver's comb.
Dating 1st to 4th century AD.

📷 Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
🏺

A white lamb jumping in a green field while its mother watches. Source: Pinterest, original photographer unknown

Boioioioing

A view towards the High Altar in Westminster Abbey, taken from beneath the quire screen which has a ceiling painted blue and decorated with gold stars

'The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, they are all fire and every one doth shine'
- Julius Caesar (III, 1)

Our choir screen, which separates the nave from the east end of the church, is beautifully decorated with gilded stars.

#ShakespeareSunday #Astronomy

An iron sword in an iron scabbard, bent in half and on display together with two bronze suspension loops and its last owner (below) in a museum setting

An iron sword in its iron scabbard, bent in half and buried over 2,000 years ago

Ritually 'killed' so that it could not be repaired nor used by another, this Iron Age weapon was found alongside its last owner

From North Bersted #Sussex 2008. Now in the Chichester Novium

📷 March 2026

#FindsFriday

The man buried at Knossos around 1100 B.C. was laid to rest with a boar-tusk helmet, arrowheads, and a quiver. Was he mimicking the style of a Cretan archer-hero who appears in the Iliad?

archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2026/collection/the-archers-tomb/the-unexpected-world-of-the-odyssey/

I love this photo of astronaut Christina Koch looking back at Earth from Artemis II.

She's the first woman to see the full sphere of our beautiful planet.

Welcome home to the crew, and thank you for reminding us of all we can discover together.

Yarn bombing is where knitted or crocheted yarn—rather than paint—adorns public objects like poles, and benches. Also known as "guerrilla knitting,", it is a street art originally started by women #Womensart

My photo shows a decorative gold brooch against a black background. The gold front plate is attached to a copper-alloy core by 8 silver rivets (not seen). The surface of the gold plate is ornately decorated with looped gold filigree, At the centre of the brooch is a circular blue glass cabochon set in a raised gold cell encircled by cloisonné garnets. Radiating out from the central blue glass cabochon are curved sections inlaid with cloisonné garnet like rays of the sun, forming a swirling pattern on the surface of the brooch. The 71 inlaid garnets come from Bohemia. Around the outer edge are four smaller round blue glass cabochons each set in a raised circular gold cell, alternating with four small square-shaped pieces of green glass set in raised square gold cells, at regular intervals. Overall, the piece is symmetrical, richly colored (gold, red, blue, and green), and highly ornate. This ornate brooch was found during the 2008-2009 excavations ahead of major renovation works at Grand Place in Quaregnon. The excavations uncovered a small Merovingian cemetery. The brooch comes from the tomb of a 7th-century female known as the ‘Lady of Quaregnon’. In addition to the brooch, her other items of jewellery included a necklace, bracelet, copper-alloy pins, and a pair of copper-alloy bow brooches.

Beautiful Merovingian brooch of the ‘Lady of Quaregnon’, AD 660-670.

Found during excavations ahead of construction works at the Grand Place, Quaregnon, Belgium, in 2008-2009. Gold, silver, copper-alloy, garnet, and glass. Diameter 5.6cm. 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology