There was a lack of coins in Britain’s American colonies, one reason being that in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was illegal to export British silver coinage to the colonies, although copper coins could be legally used.

waynesavage.com/coins-in-ame...

#history #17thc #c18th

Pair of rounded oblong buckles consisting of a ring of two rows of paste ‘diamonds’ in a steel frame that could be attached to a pair of shoes. One of the buckles tests in a case lined with greenish silk on the bottom, white silk on the underside of the top

Late #c18 #c18th #18thc shoe buckles with glass paste ‘gemstones’ and original case, Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto

Three rather stubby ceramic shoes - each with a greyish white ground, decorated with painted flowers, ribbons and squiggles in blue, green and yellow

Tin-glazed earthenware shoes (Bristol, 1768), Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto #c18 #c18th #18thc

Dealer’s description (lightly edited): ‘Straight and tapering sides. Chased vases joined by swags with perched eagles. At top is engraved “Elizabeth – Matthew”. At bottom, “Nürnberg, 1792”. Russian marks on base [not shown] include assay year. Good condition with some base bungs.’

Silver wine beaker (Russia, 1792), with Nelson & Nelson, NYC. #c18 #c18th #18thc

Mmme Geoffrin seated at a table in front of a fireplace in an elegant room hung with pictures, attended by a manservant in an apron. Behind him, a rake-like is propped against an armchair with red velvet upholstery. Muted browns and reds generally.

Mme Geoffrin standing and pointing to the oval painting on an easel being presented to her by an artist in a frock coat; in the background a four-poster bed with red silk hangings. More muted browns and red - more of the latter in bed-hangings and curtains

The Louvre has acquired, through its right of pre-emption, two paintings by Hubert Robert from the sale of the Veil-Picard collection at Christie’s: Le Déjeuner de Madame Geoffrin and Un Artiste présente un tableau à Madame Geoffrin #c18 #c18th #18thc

In manuscript: "The play concludes with / God Save the King / a favorite song called / The Bonnie / or he will come if he dare / by desire of Capt Simpson and the officers of the Royal Whitby Volunteers

A long shot this but does a song 'The Bonney or he may come if he dare' ring any bells with #c18th #skustorians?

Probably just North Yorks dialect for a lad but in conjunction with God Save the King I do kind of want it to be Charles Edward Stuart.

(verso of a playbill of 1795)

#skystorians #hivemind I have a family taking 5 rooms at the Tower Inn in Verona in 1796. They pay 20 Venetian lira per day - 6 lira per person/day for dinner, & 4 lira per person/day for servants' dinner & supper. Was this cheap or expensive? What would it have been in £? #c18th #Italy

Flat, tapered to a sharp point with an oval loop at the other end. Demi-lion crest engraved near the loop on an otherwise blank surface. Resting on a red leather table-top. On the other side (not shown) hallmarks and the maker’s mark TC (Thomas Chawner)

This long (nearly 30 cm/12 in) silver meat skewer (London, 1785) was intended to hold the beef together while you carved it, but would make an excellent (defensive) weapon. I keep it handy ... #c18 #c18th #18thc

New Book | Performance Costume in 18th-Century From Bloomsbury: Petra Zeller Dotlacilová, Performance Costume in 18th-Century France: Louis-René Boquet between Tradition and Reform (London: Bloomsbury, 2026), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1350531000, $1…

#earlymodern #C18th #performingarts #costume
New Book | Performance Costume in 18th-Century enfilade18thc.com/2026/03/26/n...

Archaic word of the day:

caducity - the infirmity of old age; senility (First recorded in 1760; from French caducité)

#englishlanguage #history #c18th

Validate User

New Publication Alert

Dan Poston, Chapter XI: The Eighteenth Century: 2. The Novel 1700–1750, The Year's Work in English Studies, 2026.

#danieldefoe #defoe #18thCentury #C18th #18thC

Catalogue: 'Circular, the cover, base and sides inset with plaques of multi-colour stained macédoine aventurine glass, the gold mounts applied with a rope motif, the interior lined with blonde horn over engine-turned foils stamped with scattered pellets, marked on flange, cover and base mounts: decharge and countermark'

Bonbonnière with gold mounts and multicoloured glass aventurine glass top (Paris, 1782-89), at Christie’s, Paris (est. €3,00-5,000) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Evening Talk: Inside the Eighteenth‑Century Reading Room Katie Halsey is Professor of Eighteenth- Century Literature at the University of Stirling, and Co-Director of its centre for Eighteenth-Cent

George Buchanan’s Afterlives: Borrowings of Buchanan’s Works in Scottish Libraries, c.1750–1840
14 May, Stirling – free (suggested donation £5)

Prof Katie Halsey traces how George Buchanan’s works were borrowed & read in Scotland across the #C18th & early #C19th
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/evening-ta...

Projet de lit « à la polonaise », Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825) Paris, vers 1784-1790. Plume, encre noire, aquarelle sur papier. Inscription en bas à gauche : J.D. Dugourc, inv. Del (date grattée) Marque de collection en bas à droite : Lugt 103b [Richard Wallace] © Les Arts Décoratifs / Christophe Dellière

And another reason to be in Paris madparis.fr/Une-journee-... #c18 #c18th #18thc

Frae fields whare Spring her sweets has blawn
Wi’ caller verdure our the lawn,
The Gowdspink comes in new attire,
The brawest ’mang the whistling choir…

—Robert Fergusson (1750–1774), “Ode to the Gowdspink”
from The Poetical Works of Robert Fergusson (Glasgow, 1800)
#poem #poetry #C18th

Exhibition poster with a blue, white and gold Sèvres covered vase , a tea cup with portraits of three children and a porcelain spaniel on a neo-classical pedestal with the name Fidélité written it; in the background à view of the Côte d’Azur

A good reason to be in Paris www.mobiliernational.culture.gouv.fr/fr/expositio...
#c18 #c18th #18thc

Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray (1753)

OTD (273 years ago): Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray (1753), the first authorized collected edition of Gray's poetry, published by Robert Dodsley.

Find out more in the #ThomasGrayArchive:
www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib...

#c18th #poetry #DH #ThomasGray #OnThisDay #OTD

Festoons of large diamonds and trailing bits ending in diamond and pearl tassels (replica of the broken-up original)

Replica of the diamond necklace (1772-74) that Queen Marie-Antoinette did _not_ buy, but which sank her reputation. In the V&A’s Marie Antoinette Style exhibition with Sutherland and Anglesey pieces containing stones from the original #c18 #c18th #18thc

So rich and detailed my friend, beautifully taken AnnaLois ☺️👌🏼

Shady Figure and a Wistful Gaze
for #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #Background

and #LightFlare by #SensoryArt

#EastCoastKin #photography #ECK #artwork #oilpainting #C17th #C18th #KiplinHall #Yorkshire #history

Photograph taken of a huge oil painting on the wall in the amazing library at Kiplin Hall, Yorkshire. It's likely to be by the C17/C18 artist Nicolas de Largillière. The Painting: The painting shows a beautiful woman dressed in a luxurious silver robe, with glimpses of a rich green dress with gold detail and a low neckline underneath. She has decadent red pointed slippers on and five blooms in her silver-blonde hair which is pinned up on top of her head exquisitely. She is leaning on a red velvet cushion atop a wooden balcony with railings looking down wistfully at whatever is happening below. At her feet, partially hidden by her robe, is a small brown and white dog with curly fur. Behind her in the darkness is a gentleman in the shadows with a pointed nose watching the lady intensely. He is a little unnerving. Could he be her patron perhaps? Her leaning on the balcony suggests despite her wealthy appearance, she is trapped between the railings preventing her fall and the figure behind. #Background The photograph shows two types of 'background'. The first, the interior decor of beautiful built-in, wraparound bookshelves and panelling with a deep green colour and sizeable cornice. The second, the shadowy figure behind the lady in the painting and the dog at her feet behind the balcony rails. #LightFlare Another of my best efforts to capture an historical painting but being tiny, even withy phone camera held above my head and on tiptoes, there's always a shaft of light that hits! Kiplin Hall: Kiplin Hall has a tremendous variety of artworks, including one of my heroes of the art world, Angelica Kauffman. She was one of two female artists who were founding members of The Royal Academy of Art in London, in 1768. Her contemporary was Mary Moser. I'll stop now before I get on my soapbox about why she deserves a bigger place in history!

Shady Figure and a Wistful Gaze
for #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #Background

and #LightFlare by #SensoryArt

#EastCoastKin #photography #ECK #artwork #oilpainting #C17th #C18th #KiplinHall #Yorkshire #history
(iPhone camera)

Screenshot of 4 editions of Harris's List side-by-side in the archive's IIIF viewer

Halfway there! 🎉 The #HarrissListDigitalArchive project has reached its midpoint: 9 of the 18 surviving editions of Harris’s List of #CoventGardenLadies are now available for data exploration (tabular analysis, mapping, and network visualisation):

harrisslist.prisms.digital

#c18th #HarrissList

Bateman is because she farmed out large quantities of mediocre work to jobbing smiths. There were much better female silversmiths in the 18C, like Louisa Courtauld and Anne Tanqueray. Dealer's description: 'Ovoid with straight sides; cover hinged and domed with stained-wood finial. Diagonal spout and high-looping and capped stained-wood handle. Beaded mouth and base rims. Bright-cut ornament including garlands, leafing scrollwork, and pendant flowers; two oval frames of which one engraved with interlaced script monogram. Pointille, wavy, scalloped and meandering borders.'

Silver teapot with the mark of (the overrated - see the alt text) Hester Bateman (London, 1788), with Nelson & Nelson, NYC #c18 #c18th #18thc

British coins

1 pound = 4 crowns = 10 florins = 20 shillings = 240 pence = 960 farthings

but

1 guinea or sovereign = 21 shillings

#history #c18th #c19th

Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture

If only travel to the Untidy States were not off-limits for me (for obvious reasons I shall not mention): Gainsborough and 'The Fashion of Portraiture' at the Frick in NYC www.frick.org/exhibitions/... #c18 #c18th #18thc

Burlington Magazine Scholarship | French 18th-Century Art The application period closes next Tuesday, from The Burlington: The Burlington Magazine Scholarship | French 18th-Century Fine and Decorative Art Applications due by 31 March 2026 The Burlington M…

#earlymodern #art #French #C18th
Fantastic research opportunity:
Burlington Magazine Scholarship | French 18th-Century Art enfilade18thc.com/2026/03/24/b...

Silver medal. Obverse: 'James III and VIII' in profile in full-bottomed wig, laureate, armoured and draped. Legend: NIHIL EFFICIENS ('Accomplishing nothing').

Reverse: map of Great Britain and Ireland; marked SCOTIA 1708. M. MART. 1716. M. FEBR. BRITANNIA, HIBERNIA; ships about the coast. Legend: BIS VENIT VIDIT NON VICIT FLENSQVE RECESSIT ('Twice he came, he saw, he did not conquer and he retired in tears'). A couple of light surface marks to obverse, toned and with a flashy lustre, extremely fine.

Satirical medal (1716) on the repeated failures of the #Jacobite claimant to regain his ancestral thrones (1708 and 1715; more lay ahead), at Spink (est. £1,500-2,000) The Latin is catty: see the alt #c18 #c18th #18thc

Small, bulbous cup with handle and lid with finial, painted with floral sprigs in underglaze blue. Height (incl. cover): 8.4cm (3.3in); width (incl. handle): 8.4cm (3.3in)

Base with hunting horn mark in underglaze blue

Custard cup with cover, hunting horn mark on the base (Chantilly, c1750) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Oval black basalt with a bust of Pope with characteristic sharp nose and longish, natural hair, no drapery, in relatively high relief, looking left. Less than an inch at its longest

Tiny Wedgwood & Bentley portrait of Alexander Pope (c1770), perhaps intended to be mounted on a ring #c18 #c18th #18thc

After these came a second set; among the most come-at-able of whom were Mrs. and Miss Bates and Mrs. Goddard, three ladies almost always at the service of an invitation from Hartfield, and who were fetched and carried home so often that Mr. Woodhouse thought it no hardship for either James or the horses. Had it taken place only once a year, it would have been a grievance.

"come-at-able"

[Emma, Jane Austen (1816)] #c18th #18thc

Sir William Pulteney (1684-1764) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

John Ellis (1698-1791) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

Edward Moore (1712-1757) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

OTD: William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1684-1764), John Ellis (1698-1791), and Edward Moore (1712-1757) born this day.

Featured in the #EighteenthCenturyPoetryArchive:
https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/

#c18th #poetry #DH #18thCentury #OnThisDay #OTD