A circa 1740 porcelain small mug with handle manufactured at Chantilly, decorated with painted flowers and bamboo in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style. Nicely done. Bought it from Bonhams, London on December 2nd and it actually shipped and arrived before Christmas. Miraculous.

Gold snuff box, 1767, with miniature views of Château de Chanteloup, gouache on vellum; commissioned by duc de Choiseul (1719-1785), statesman, Minister of Foreign Affairs to Louis XV & patron of arts; after 1764, he fell from favour & retired to his Château de Chanteloup, near Amboise. Met Museum

Thanks for following, glad to connect! Fan of all things history. But mainly posting on eighteenth-century British political, imperial, and intellectual history, Edmund Burke, Whig political culture, and classical reception.

Silver spice container in the form of a poodle, with Matthew Holder, London #c18th #c18 #18thc

I will too!

Cup and saucer (Frankenthal, c1778), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

Gold ring (English, late #c18th #c18 #18thc) set with an inscribed carnelian intaglio (Persian, dated 1179 AH/1765 CE), with Matthew Holder, London.

An 18thC advertisement for the Greenwich bookbinder Joseph Naples, who offers to fit up gentlemen’s libraries ‘in the neatest and best manner, and on the most reasonable terms’. Another piece from an album of book trade ephemera, compiled by Tim Munby & now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social, Munby.b.131.

Small lidded tureen in the form of a cabbage (Meissen, c1774-1814), with Earle D Vandekar of Knightsbridge #c18th #c18 #18thc

Godfried Schalcken (1643–1706), Self portrait, 1695. Oil on canvas, 110 x 89 cm, Royal Pump Rooms, Warwickshire, England (LEAMG : A452.1953)

Pair of English silver wine bottle coasters, 1768. Recently sold (alas, not to me) by Nelson & Nelson, NYC #c18th #c18 #18thc (you bought them for me, didn’t you?)

Tureen and cover (Derby, 1760), with Earle D Vandekar of Knightsbridge #c18th #c18 #18thc

Yesterday I saw this incredible trompe l'oeil painted in 1771 by Jean-Étienne Liotard, a painter I love but whose work I too rarely encounter.

Badge made from the VNICA SALVS ('The only safeguard') medal of 1721, but with only the obverse portrait of 'James III and VIII'; blank reverse, w/o the depiction of a grieving Britannia with the lion and unicorn being trampled by the white horse of Hanover #Jacobite #c18th #c18 #18thc

Carved wooden grease bowl in the form of a seal (X̱aayda (Haida) or Ts'msyen (Tsimshian), late #c18th #c18 #18thc or early 19th. Sold recently at Waddington's, Toronto for C$67,850 (incl. premium; est. $50,000-70,000)

Mug (Chantilly, c1740) #c18th #c18 #18thc

New Theatre Covent Garden, copper pass (c. 1745-46), with a bust of the Duke of Cumberland obverse, rev. GALLERY anti - #Jacobite #c18th #c18 #18thc

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Pulcinella’s Farewell to Venice, pen and brown ink with brown wash over charcoal on laid paper, from the beautiful but very strange Pulcinella, ovvero, Divertimento per li regazzi (Pulcinella, or, Diversions for Children), 1798/1802 (National Gallery of Art)

Greuze and childhood exhibition @petitpalaismusee.bsky.social An artist I find hard to love, but this generous show gives us lots to appreciate and think about.

✨This book was once owned by Jane Austen! ✨ There are very few books that Jane Austen is known to have owned, making this one at the UL incredibly special. We're delighted to show it to you today, on her 250th birthday! #JaneAusten250

Silver coffee biggin ('A type of coffee pot containing a strainer, through which coffee infuses without mixing with the water', OED) and stand by Matthew Boulton (stand, 1807; pot, 1809), with Nelson & Nelson, NYC. (Long) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Snuff box with concealed portrait of Prince Charles Edward, at Bonhams, Edinburgh (est. £1,000-1,500) #Jacobite #c18th #c18 #18thc

Necessary for holiday entertaining! Pair of Sheffield plate wine coolers by Matthew Boulton (c1815), with M Ford Creech, Memphis, Tenn. #c18th #c18 #18thc

Very sorry I’ll have to miss this, @drbibliomane.bsky.social !

our Clarissa reading group celebrated finishing the novel yesterday by visiting the Morgan Library for a personal display of their Richardson holdings. I just love this Edward Gorey-ish frontispiece to a children's adaptation (!) of Clarissa.

I was today years old when I learned that James Edward Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen's nephew & memoirist, was a practitioner of cut-paper silhouettes! (Attn: @catrionamac.bsky.social !) Here's one Austen-Leigh created as an illustration for his aunt's Sense and Sensibility. This is Barton Cottage:

Asparagus server (Staffordshire, possibly Neale & Co., c1790). I now have three of these thingies, so I guess that makes it a collection #c18th #c18 #18thc

Twelve silver dinner plates by Paul Storr, 1810. With Nelson & Nelson, NYC #c18th #c18 #18thc

Nice article by Georgia Vullinghs in the latest Proccedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on #Jacobite tokens #c18th #c18 #18thc @socantscot.bsky.social @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social

Large Worcester dish in the pinecone pattern (c1770) #c18th #c18 #18thc

An early Georgian japanned bureau cabinet © Godson and Coles

One of those things I wished I could have afforded at the time (£1,150 in 2010): white ceramic bin label with 'Bronte' in pink lustre (c1800-1815) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Dog and cock (Arita, c1680-1725) and a view of the new third-floor display, George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, #c18th #c18 #18thc

Sphinx (Chelsea, c1750), sold at Bonhams, London for £7690 incl. premium #c18th #c18 #18thc

Looking forward to reviewing this for the Antiquaries Journal #c18th #c18 #18thc #Jacobite @antiquaries.bsky.social

The latest edition of Lithuanian Historical Studies is out, featuring an article by Mindaugas Šapoka on the question of how close the Stuarts came to moving to Poland-Lithuania brill.com/view/journal...

Gold pocket watches carried by Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson (c1790; mounted as a carriage clock), Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy (c1755) & Rear-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1803) at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Spink, London, est. £800,000-1,200,000; bidding starts at £720,000) #c18th #c18 #18thc

#Slop meant liquid mud or slush in the eighteenth century. If we're all going to drown in it, let's at least do it the #18thc way!

An assembled set of Sèvres porcelain compotiers, shell-form (coquille) dishes for compotes or caramelized fruit, with date marks from 1763 to 1779. Ten in total, bought at Christie's at various auctions over the last ten years. Plain decoration (for Sèvres) but still rather nicely done. (see ALT)

It's getting cold, but it's not 'Mount Vesuvius covered in snow' levels yet. This lovely print of the snow-covered Vesuvius comes from Sir William Hamilton FSA's 'Campi Phlegræi: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies'.

Beaker and saucer (Chantilly, c1735) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Caterina De Julianis, Penitent Magdalene, 1717, polychrome wax, painted paper, glass, tempera on paper, and other materials (Detroit Institute of Arts)

A #tinyjoy to bring some cheer on what is a grey, wintery day in the Boston area: A late #18thc snuffbox with the motto "The Eyes have pow'r/ To kill or cure." Be careful, all, of basilisk women with doves.

Oooh, @drrwel.bsky.social! #c18th #c18 #18thc

Robert Burns & the Glenriddell Manuscripts 22 Jan 2026, @natlibscot.bsky.social Edinburgh – free Discover the incredible story of the Glenriddell Manuscripts – the largest collection of Robert Burns’s original writings in the world #C18th #poetry #song #letters www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-bur...

English delftware bin label and pickle dish (c1750-70), sold at Bonhams, London, £1,920 incl. premium (not to me!)

Joseph Highmore, double portrait of Frances Pryce and her husband Edward Pryce (1752), at Dreweatts, Newbury, Berks. est. £15,000-25,000 #c18th #c18 #18thc

Gold seal fob of George II with the arms of Great Britain & Hanover impaling Brandenburg-Ansbach (for his consort, Caroline) on one of the 3 facets of the carnelian stone (c1727), sold this week at Waddington's, Toronto, for C$7,500 - not to me! (est. C$5,000-7,000) #c18th #c18 #18thc

Réception du jour. 😊 Le catalogue de l'exposition "Marie-Antoinette, une reine à Saint-Cloud", du musée des Avelines (13 €)

Feeling like things are tipping you over the edge? Look at this gorgeous detail from Quentin Pierre Chedel's book of prints, with fisherman falling out of the page...