A late Xmas present given to me by a book chum. A 1892 edition of Dante's Inferno illus by Gustave Dore. Here in the 7th circle of Hell - Canto XIV, lines 37-39. 'Unceasing was the play of wretched hands, Now this, now that way glanciing, to shae off The heat, still falling fresh.'

This Falkland Island Wolf arrived in Dunedin, NZ, in 1875, just a year before it went extinct in the wild. Tuhura Otago Museum's taxidermist, Edwinn Jennings mounted it. Our paper is part of a sample issue and is currently free www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...

This beauty gets in my face when I empty my mail-box. I make trips even though I know the postie doesn't deliver every day. There are bushes of this variety in flower all over Dunedin at present, bringing cheer.

Somehow fitting that the latest book in my collection brings the total to 3,000. Was the dreaming child me? Very likely, given the number of school reports that read "must learn to concentrate" and similar! #bookhistory

Framed my latest #etching, bought at a local auction by Andrew F. Affleck (1874/7-1936), British etcher known for large-sized prints European townscapes, this is Dordrecht.

Very honoured to be part of DSO Chorus! If you are in Dunedin on Saturday night 28 June, do not miss this premiere of the moving story of Mataataua Wharenui. The meeting house’s creation in Whakatāne, the loss of Ngāti Awa control over it, its travels, & return to AoNZ for the 1925 Exhibition.

Pleased to announce publication of my article on how the museum acquired its large critters in late-19C & still mostly on display in Animal Attic, everyone's fave gallery. Natural History Trading with Tūhura Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand, c1860–1890s muse.jhu.edu/pub/426/arti...

sorry forgot tags! #taxidermy, #tuatara #NewZealand #Wildlife.

Bought at a local auction for a pittance, considering it's an excellent #etching of Toledo Bridge by Edward Millington Synge (1860-1913). An Irish #printmaker, his work featured in a National Gallery of Ireland exhibition 'Making Their Mark' in 2019. Wish I had a time machine. The catalogue is good.

Picked up a very neat copy of 'Glaucus:The Wonders of the Shore' by Rev Charles Kingsley for a song from local op-shop. Yes, the same Charles Kingsley of 'Water-Babies' fame. Naturalist, social reformer, Anglican priest and supporter of Darwin's ideas which he promoted as theologically orthodox.

With a superabundance of Oamaru limestone, which has stood the test of time, the Oamaru War Memorial choice was marble (probably imported), curious. #urbangeology

A half-hearted decorative effort, seen in a waiting room, but my sentiments are not half-hearted, Season's Greetings.

Plenty of room for pudding -- this whale had 9 stomachs. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Utterly delightful find in local bookshop. V&A reprinted this small volume on High Street shops, illust Eric Ravillious. Originally published 1938 as an AtoZ of shops. Gill Saunders essay provides context of this lost pre-WWII world. #illustrators #bookhistory

Nice to see Parker & Haswell, publ 1897, still in use although much revised, of course! #bookhistory #HistSTM #textbooks

Welcome to #WikiAdvent Calendar #Day1! Today's "window" is a proper NZ rabbithole. Let's go! 🧵 1st Dec marks the start of Advent, and also the beginning of #Whamageddon, which my kids take very seriously. Last year I heard Wham’s Last Christmas in the pharmacy on the 1st. Straight to Whamhalla!

Front cover of December issue of ISIS, Journal history of science society, features eruption of Krakatoa. Lithography by Michael Prendergast Parker (1859-1934), younger brother of the man who is alive and living in my head - Thomas Jeffery Parker FRS (1850-1897). #HistSTM #ScientificIllustration

Mood! My single peony flower did not survive the overnight thunder, lightning and downpour!

"The creation of the world in [Paul] Nash’s Genesis is a jerky, frightening cataclysm — the miracle being not what God made, but that something was made at all. ... This artist lived in close proximity to the empty maw." Image: "Man and Woman" woodcut. 1924 publicdomainreview.org/collection/p...

Yall I saw the unofficial fish of bluesky. A 1000 pound mola mola just munching down on velella velella. Can't wait to get on a smaller boat and get some underwater shots of these perfect creatures this summer. 🦑

Escapism for a wet afternoon. Book order just arrived. Look at that absolute unit! @themerl.bsky.social Turns out to be a reprint from a special issue of 1950 quarterly, Image. #engraving #arthistory #BookHistory

Of course, this should have read, "even though it's not earth-shattering it *is* original research."

I've been keeping my head down and busy recently. Must admit to a certain pride at seeing my name in print, even though it's not earth-shattering original research. Women I've grown to know a bit get an airing. ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article... Open Access. #HistSTM #Museums

This is what documentary film-making was all about. Not a single shot out of place and all cut to the exact right length. Each shot moves the narrative onwards, with only minimal voice-over. Depicting a world long gone, of course.

After some ugly pruning (aka hacking) a couple or three years ago the not-my-tree at the end of my driveway has slowly revealed a face. It's an uncanny resemblance to Frederick Douglass the abolitionist IMHO.

er ... sorry that should read NEXT Friday & Saturday! I mean I know NZ is first to see the sun in the world but ooops that's just a tad ridiculous!

This Friday & Saturday ... come with your cash to see what all our hard work sorting sorting throughout the year can produce. There are enough books for every imaginable bibliophile. Old & Quirky; History; Science; Religion; Hobbies; Gardening; Arts; Travel; Foreign Language; Travel; Sport; War.

Began rehearsing this puppy last night. After a month's summer recess pleased to say my ageing voice held up quite well. #choralmusic #classicalmusic #Bach

Can't afford to collect the original engravings, but can collect the next best thing: books with illustrations. Robert Gibbings and Gwen Raverat were founder members of the Society of Wood Engravers, still going strong today (after a few years of doldrums in the 1970s).

An ordinary civic library maybe but Dunedin Public Library completes a large digitisation project on its mediaeval manuscripts. Donated by publisher AH Reed, a household name in early to mid 20C. odt.shorthandstories.com/medieval-man...

The nice thing about Christmas in NZ -- it goes on forever, as another book turns up that I had ordered for myself. "A small mound of white feathers lies on a tussock grass made grey by a Highland winter. It is all the monument there will ever be to the life of a swan." Pics & words perfectly match

Wild bunny enjoying Dunedin's drizzly evening. Slightly out of focus because of low-light levels. Where's the summer sun gone? We have had a single day of sunshine this year. Grumble, grumble, grumble - it's like winter (version II with day-length).

Honoured to be associated with this eminent bunch of scholars for the special issue Darwin Down Under: Australasian Perspectives on Darwin Studies, now complete with an excellent introduction by Ian Hesketh. www.sciencedirect.com/journal/stud...

Curmudgeonly Bernard Sleigh in his book "Wood Engraving" published 1932, thinks "Miss Lane Foster would excel [at portraiture] were she to adopt a less coarse handling of the graver". Harumph!

I am enjoying my Christmas present to myself! Clare Leighton's engravings recorded a life already passing when she first did them in the 1930s. "She [blackbird] is in a tangle of crab-apple tree in the hedge... so immovable that she might be carved in wood."

Happy New Year!

Oh, it's so nice to re-connect with online chums after being patient for an invitation code to join this superior platform. Happy morning spent finding and following!

Kia Ora blueskyers