Practical numismatic research at the American Numismatic Society and at New York International Numismatic Convention The Julius Caesar aureus is provenanced to before 1873 In Orleans, France

Advert in a guide to Dublin; Aer Lingus via Bristol on DH86, 1936-1939; MV Munster built 1938 but sunk 1940. Refs. to "Éire" (pre 1949) and German Legation (pre 1945). No refs to wartime measures. So, 1939. High Tea at 1/9 (cold cuts, egg, potato). NOT same as Afternoon Tea at 1/- (cakes sandwich)

Great article on how Bond villains have the very best taste in architecture. Detail I liked: Frank Lloyd Wright was asked to create a scenery version of FallingWater for North by Northwest but asked for % takings so Hitchcock faked it Supervillains get the best lairs - on.ft.com/4nIxykk via @FT

A copy of Strada's and Gessner's enormous 1559 Imperatorum Romanorum Verissimae Imagines has just popped up on Abe. 118 woodcut medallion portraits of Roman emperors, opposite inscriptions, every page in elaborate frames of grotesques putti cherubs and fruit. Signed by the woodcut artists. I want.

1000 large paperclips, because my last buy of 200 proved insufficient. After experiments, non-paperclip attachments don't work but sandwiching book cover between library card & small index card does, & respects book Antiquarian books on table 1500s Renaissance. Pile on floor folio vols from 1600s.

I don't know who is more relaxed in this little #dog vid: me as an onlooker, the twins nurturing Austin, or the puppy being pampered.

John Lee Hooker with a diagram of the evolution of the Blues.

Citizen Series 8 #watch

Some dogs love water and some dogs hate water. Today we discovered Austin is a love-water dog 🐶😁

Austin conquers a towel #dogs

Great thread. Bells 1,2,3, 5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,15 have pubs named after them. I can't believe there's no "The Four Bells", tho absence of a 9 bell and 14 bell pub surprises me less.

There isn't much evidence of Alaric's sack of the city of Rome in 410 CE, but I taught the moneychangers in the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum yesterday & hundreds of melted and destroyed coins were found in the destruction level dating to 410 CE. warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cla...

Kerry James Marshall, 5 star Guardian review for his Royal Academy retrospective from the bar to the bedroom, to the Middle Passage, from the studio to the academy, beauty parlour to the dancehall, kidnappings and enslavement, and a black cop on his squad car www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Some Renaissance folio-sized fine book bindings in my library: (NB bindings are not my main interest, due the high added cost relative to my perceived value) Two original in blind stamped vellum & leather; one later in an early vellum MS; one later but in 1500s style embossed & stamped leather

Got a craving to learn something completely new? Looking to explore the latest research on a period, theme or area of the world? Check out our online collections, with free and #OpenAccess #archaeology on all this and more! 🏺 antiquity.ac.uk/collections

Austin goes to the pub

Alpha Lounge, Lewisham. Early. Good sound, cosy, friendly, cheap Tho security: "I think you're in the wrong place mate, are you here for the salsa on the top floor because that's not on Saturdays?" Me: "I'm here for Alpha Lounge" Security, dubious "Let me search you" (which he did thoroughly) 🤣

Please congratulate me for typing without using the letters T, G or V, because T came undone, and the letters either side are also unusable. I'll pencil in a few essentials, but omission works well too: context means you all know where "Cambride" is. Book: Glarean, de Asse, 1551. AMAZING diagrams.

£24,500 The vast Lambeth Palace Library Bookcase Dimensions: 2.9 metres (114¼") High, 11.7 metres (460¾") Wide, 0.63 metres (24¾") Deep, each shelf measures 85.5 x 33 x 2.5cm) It would actually fit perfectly in my library room. But I already have shelves. www.lassco.co.uk/product/the-...

Use of Signatures for the issue date of a book lacking a title page: Girolami Tagliente, Libro d'abaco (abacus book) Venice 1520, illustrates #mathematics & money usage in commerce. First ed 1515, this ed identified by how the book's paper was folded into 'signatures' and by its decorative borders

Austin's first ever walkies. He was post-vaccine quarantined til today He never touched grass before. Bit overwhelming, so many sights sounds and especially smells. After a while it was too much and he hid under a bench and then I carried him home. #dogs

New in library. The chiarascuro full page portraits are iconic (see what I did 🙄) high Renaissance art. Goltzius 1557, German ed. bound in illuminated manuscript. Some empty roundels charmingly filled out with primitive portraits, notes or diagrams. Several hundred medallions with bios. Folio.

Reading Emily Wilson, Clive Hicks Jenkins and Folio Society's new Iliad, with Austin calmly by my feet. Late summer weather on the balcony, trees are green and sun shining. Birdsong and distant grass cutting the only sounds in Lambeth; an occasional Heathrow bound plane. @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social

Archivists, Librarians, Antiquarian booksellers and collectors, this image prompts a question - are there any card or paper based alternatives to metal paperclips, to attach an index card or library pocket to the cover of an antiquarian book. Do not want to use adhesives.

We don't need to consume all the cough mixture we buy. Likewise we don't have to read all the books, and we have extra cutlery just in case. When we want to feel better, then go to the ‘book closet’ and choose for that moment The Antilibrary: The Value of Unread Books - share.google/AH087ODZzj0B...

Part of the permanent exhibition at @queerbritain.bsky.social, this poster advocates for safe sex to diminish the spread of HIV AIDS #MuseumBums 😁 Queer Britain is the only dedicated permanent queer museum in the UK, it's free to visit but every little helps!👍🏛️🍑🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Just faced off an amazingly argumentative woman on social media. After quiet explanations of my posts, with receipts, didn't work - I rather not talk back to someone who looks like my mum, I looked at her account. "PhD, unapologetic TERF". My life is LGBTQIA+ inclusive. Blocked.

Austin; below his chin, Erizzo, Discorso, printed 1571, on ancient coins; to his left, inside binding, Edward VI Book of Common Prayer printed 1552, used as scrap paper for Cenau, de vera mensarum ponderumque printed 1547 but bound later Happy Austin is learning the scent of Renaissance books

Been book filing today, image shows a run of volumes printed in the 1500s and how I prepare typewritten library cards for each

Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:

I'm in a rough south London bar hiding from billionaire knobheads who frequent the west end and a billionaire knobhead walked in and buttonholed me. Can't escape them. Hes been drinking since 630am and spent £36000 on a ring this afternoon, randomly called into this bar. His security is outside.

Micserah - a Nigerian based mechanical watch brand with some very attractive pieces at attractive prices. I'd add one except they are aimed at the Naija market only! micserah.com/collections/...

Austin joined our family yesterday. 3mo old goldendoodle. Settled in immediately, high energy zoomies with the twins and squeak toys yet totally calm with me and a book and classical music on the balcony. In one pic he looks like an owl, not so photogenic yet 😅 but there's time #dogs

#Milgauss new on my wrist. Would survive an interaction with an MRI machine and still keep time. Great vibes from the electric blue, radium glass green, and thunderbolt spark orange. Thick, but the large crown keeps it balanced.

1 Pingin Irish Penny Why on earth didn't they use a genuine penny coin rather than make two sided base metal bronze-painted casts? #numismatics

I am reassembling Jean Grolier's (1489-1565) library at home, starting with numismatics and ancient texts (illustrated or in English). Checked thru this booklet: I have all Grolier's important books (except two: Fulvio 1517, gettable, and Strada Imperatorum 1558, not) Rare books are easier & cheap

Reminds me of 1. reading Samuel Pepys' diaries as a kid. Lots of non sequiturs (expurgated sex scenes) 2. watching Sound of Music in Convent hall as a kid. The nuns decided to show reels 1 and 3 only because there was love interest in reel 2 both made much more sense when seen/read uncensored

Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️

The Irish take a homeopathic medicine approach to pepper. 20 types of pepper sauces in my supermarket, all highly diluted, mixed with sugar and other flavours to cover up the pepper In good pepper sauces the individual fruit flavour and scent is prominent & distinct, not disguised by the emulsion

The Freddy Mercury hoovering display team were also a particular highlight...

Travel watch. Seiko emulating their standard 1960 designs, esp the classic 5722.

Fort William, Scotland, with the kids

I have to check out my boisterous caravan of cranky lazy belligerent and sick young adults that I brought to Scotland, engage hired transport for every move, arrange to stow their bags, keep them amused, fed, mostly seated, and out of hospital for 8 hours and get them on an overnight sleeper train

Tunnock's Tea Cakes and a tot of Glentauchers 2012-2025 12yo #whisky. Both whiskies are single cask and the Glentaucher from a distillery no longer bottling its own. Other is Craigellachie. Not much chance anyone else will have similar. Speysides which are my fave. 12yo and 16 yo. 46% and 67%(!!)

Scotland, Fort William. The soft Scottish rain has done something remarkable to our skin complexions 😚

Books back from my #bookbinder in Amsterdam. Mostly 1600s-1700s. I went with mostly blue leather and blue marbled paper, different for each book, for large vols, and tan leather for smaller vols. €750 for whole lot including postage back to me. Rebinding is so inexpensive and such a dramatic effect.

Proof that #Grammar Beefs are not new. Dryden criticised Ben Johnson's "Catiline Conspiracy" for its use of stranded prepositions, their 1611 Beef cited in The Cambridge English Grammar 2002 "The maws, and the dens of beasts could not receive the bodies that those souls were frighted from"

my library's tiniest book, Johnson's Catiline is based on the pro-Cicero biased version of Sallust by Felici for Leo X, 1520. 1739 print CATILINE HIS CONSPIRACY. A TRAGEDY, Acted in the YEAR 1611 By the KING'S MAJESTY's Servants. WITH THE Allowance of the Master of Revels. The Author BEN. JOHNSON

1553 G.Rouille Promptuaire des Medalles alongside same print book but latter has 62 pages of manuscript addition corresponding exactly to extra pages in the 1576/77 extended edition of same title. Owner popped into a library with his 1553 and came out with a 1577 😁 Library cards below worth reading

Nice piece on the power of art; it deserved to be much longer tho, I'd love a long-form with this intensity www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...