We dropped into the Metzer Eck again over Xmas. The oldest family-run German pub in Prenzlauer Berg, it’s a wonderful time-capsule with its original wood panelling, decor and photos of celebrity GDR patrons. The service is friendly and they have Rollberg Rot on tap 😋

🦅 Not your average pet… Meet Robert Cheseman, chief falconer to Henry VIII. No cat or dog for him, just casually posing with his falcon.  Check the gaze, the satin sleeves, and the tiny brass bell: proof of Hans Holbein's skill! Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Robert Cheseman, 1533

Relaxing in somebody else’s home for the holiday.

Whitehaven harbour, West Cumbria a couple of days ago. The Pier Master's Watch House and store was built 1764 and is Grade II listed. The Old Quay on which the watch house sits was constructed in 1687.

And how about some magnificent trees

Also popped in to see the Jersey girls but they were busy having brunch

I popped in to pay my respects to Edmund and fam

All Saints in her festive finery

Yes I do love the unravelling of a mystery, and this is one yet to be resolved

Therefore, until the mid 18th century, the first month of the year was March, meaning that January really was the eleventh month and June really was the fourth month. 📷 Headstones that call January the eleventh month and June the fourth month

NEW review in The British Art Journal: @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social on the Wright of Derby exhibition at the National Gallery britishartjournal.co.uk/wright-of-de... Challenges some long-held assumptions

Happy 2026! I'm recycling yesterday's thread post as it is now tomorrow - that is, today. Wishing a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all who read my posts 🌞

Light, Camera, Action: Light displays are an important part of New Year celebrations the world over, so we are celebrating today with Pre-Raphaelite Photography by Minna Keene. 1. 🖼️ ‘Pomegranates’, c.1910. 2. 🖼️ ‘Woman with flowers (Violet)’, circa 1910. 3. 🖼️ ‘Fenn Lancaster’.

Here's an unusual Worth garment for you all. While they transformed into a cloak in 1896 when Tsar Nicolas II gifted it to Countess Greffulhe, the fabric is actually a ceremonial coat from Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan. Worth also added the velvet border with metallic lace flowers to match the

Very weird to see people wishing each other Happy New Year in countries where it isn't yet midnight. I hope this isn't a thing.

Happy birthday, Henri Matisse (b. 31 December 1869). Among his final works are these beautiful ‘Tree of Life’ windows, and tiling (depicting Saint Dominic), in Chapelle du Rosaire aka “Matisse Chapel”

Giant bird sculpture? Check ✔️ Happy New Year's Eve – we hope you see out 2025 in style, much like this artwork 🥂 'Midnight, New Year's Eve, Chelsea Arts Ball' by Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook (1907–1978) © the artist's estate 📸 Sir Francis Cook Collection

Barker Lane in York (below) takes its name from the tanners who worked in the area. Nearby Tanner Row (bottom image), was once known as Barker Rawe and by the later medieval period the street was firmly associated with tanners and their workshops. Tanning relied on extracting 1/3

Health, Life, Joy, Peace, Good Cheer, Hope Υγεία, Ζωή, Χαρά, Ειρήνη, Ευθυμία, Ελπίς 4th-century mosaic from Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) at the British Museum

For the British Art Journal @britishartjournal.bsky.social, I reviewed the National Gallery's, 'Joseph Wright of Derby: From the Shadows'. It's a fine show, yet repeats a number of mistaken assumptions about Wright, and British 18thC art in general. 1/4 britishartjournal.co.uk/wright-of-de...

🧵For the end of the year, and the birth of the next. 21st Dynasty depiction of Harpocrates (Greek representation of Horus the Child) symbolising the newborn sun, sits in an ourobouros, symbol of eternity & cyclic renewal of the sun, surrounding a sun disk between the twin lions that make up Aker 1/

I'll have the crane in lard with farced cabege please. (from the look of this menu, I'm guessing 'farced' involves lard in some shape or form)

497 years ago today, Henry VIII attended a meal with Cardinal Wolsey and the Papal Legate Campeggio, for which this is the menu (one of the few menus for meals attended by Henry) that survive. 1/8

Votive Plaque: Swallow (Egypt, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 BCE) Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

Olga Rozanova (1886-1918) pattern design c1917-18 Russian avant-garde artist, painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism (I've never heard of any of those styles before...) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Ro...

Painted tile - 1564-8 Made by Jasper Andries & Jacob Jansen, in #Antwerp or #Norwich The wild boar with a crescent was used by Sir Francis Bacon to show he was his father’s second son. Made for Old Gorhambury House, near St Albans, #Hertfordshire Now V & A Museum #London #TilesOnTuesday

1901 tiled foyer in Cathedral Buildings, Newcastle #tilesonTuesday

Bracing & long Thames walk today for me. A dreich sky, gulls wheeling & screaming above, the streets of Wapping full of ghosts. The foreshore isn’t just about finds, which can be few & far between. Mudlarking’s introduced me to old river stairs, ancient timbers, mooring features & long gone docks.

Cecilia Giménez, aficionada a la pintura, quiso restaurar el Ecce Hommo de su pueblo sin imaginar que su resultado lo haría mundialmente famoso y acabaría atrayendo a miles de visitantes a Borja. Ha fallecido a los 94 años

Watching Death on the Nile again, as it's on tv - mostly for the scenery and the fabulous cast - I thought I'd share some photos of Jaq on the Nile 😀1998

Poet, playwright & artist Federico Garcia Lorca in the Patio de los Arrayanes de la Alhambra, Granada 1927, as painted by John Singer Sargent, 1879 and as photographed c. 1880

And Felix Vallotton died 100 years ago today.....

Thread. I've been trying to find out who took a particular photo of photographer Josef Sudek. As a last resort, I asked AI, which initially told me it was of Charles Bukowski. I corrected it. Then it told me the photo of Sudek was taken by Koudelka, and is a self portrait. See how this unfolds...

🤔Ever wondered what work was like in #AncientEgypt? Discover the real people behind the pharaohs in our 'Life at Work on the Nile' resource – from farmers to craftsmen and more! Dive into #history that feels surprisingly familiar. Read now: buff.ly/2cuO7qQ

Falcor!

Actress and socialite Dina Merrill was born #OnThisDay in 1903. She modelled Luis Estévez's black crepe evening dress, inspired by the infamous black dress in John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, for a Milton H. Greene Life magazine photoshoot in 1960. #fashionhistory

#12DaysOfVGM - day 8 Happy Twixmas Monday! 🎄 We reopen Thur 8 Jan but if you need a VG&M fix, head to the Walker where you can see our famous JMW Turner 'The Eruption of the Soufrière Mountains', on display in exhibition 'Turner: Always Contemporary' 🎟️ 👇 https://orlo.uk/60KRH

The Clothworkers’ are mesmerised by this beautiful Yemeni zanna made of shimmering, mallet-burnished indigo-dyed fabric with exquisite embroidery. Herb-filled pouches, mother-of-pearl shards, brass sequins and protective motifs cluster around the neckline, cuffs and seams to ward off the evil eye.

Here is a nice floor.

Gold scythian belt title from Mingachevir, Azerbaijan. (ancient Scythian kingdom), Azerbaijan, 7th-4th century BC 📸 Urek Meniashvili #AncientBlueSky #Artwork

Long-exposure shot under the M56 motorway, Frodsham

A real Swiss Roll chocolate Yule log of a #Tree #Stump from a walk in the #woods yesterday!

Anyone looking for the full map or wondering who made it, it’s the work of Matt Brown and it’s here. open.substack.com/pub/londonis...

Philip Wilson Steer was born #OTD 1860. Currently showing at Williamson, Birkenhead (where he was born and which has decent collection of his work). Variable artist (I think) but at his best innovative and evocative. williamsonartgallery.org/event/philip...

Lee Miller and Lucian Freud Roland Penrose - Downshire Hill, 1949

Looking out on the town... 🤩 The beautiful 1660 View of #Delft by Johannes Vermeer at the Mauritshuis in The Hague @mauritshuis.bsky.social - always worth passing by!

I wish I'd found this account sooner - only came across it today. They post some great videos from their art collection, often pointing out tiny details.

Extraordinary beauty this morning in Braemar. The Morrone birkwood is high enough to retain the freezing fog longer into the day. And then, even after the fog clears and the hillsides warm up, the Braemar frost hollow keeps the woodland cold.

Virgil van Dijk with Diogo Jota's kids before the game started at Anfield today, with tributes from both Liverpool and Wolves fans - he played for Wolves before signing with Liverpool. Lovely tributes from both sets of fans today, in front of his wife and family, and this was just lovely to see ❤️

Portrait of Auguste Rodin by Gertrude Käsebier, ca. 1908