explore | Grilled Cheese

@defoesociety.bsky.social Oct 16, 2026, 6:45 AM

New Publication Alert

Hasanzada, T. (2026). Narrative Authority and Narrative Time in the British Novel: A Comparative Reading from Defoe to Barnes. Global Spectrum of Research and Humanities , 3(4), 123-134. doi.org/10.69760/gsr...

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

@c18ah.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 2:01 PM

On this day, Allan Ramsay (1684-1758) and John Hervey, Baron of Ickworth (1696-1743)’s birth date.

Poetry available in the #EighteenthCenturyPoetryArchive:
https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/

#c18th #poetry #DH #OTD

Allan Ramsay (1684-1758) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

John Hervey (1696-1743) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

@johnobrien.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 12:09 PM

My book has a cover design! I hope you like it (I do). Books available in May 2027.

In the meantime, I'm doing weekly posts on Substack, each one about a poem published in a newspaper that did *not* make it to the book. literatureinc.substack.com/p/newspaper-...
#18th #c18th #c18thcentury

Cover for John O'Brien's book titled Newspaper Verse.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 10:28 AM

Snuffbox made from Japanese lacquer panels, mounted in gold by François-Thomas Germain (Paris, 1755). At Christie's, Geneva (est. CHF 80,000-120,000) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Catalogue: Oval set with panels of [black and gold] Japanese maki-e lacquer figuring Mandarin ducks in a pond on the cover and on the underside chrysanthemums over a pond jetty, within gold cagework chased with geometric motifs, gold lined, marked in cover, base and inner flange: charge, date-letter (O and P) and maker; on flange: décharge

Size/Dimensions: 8,4 cm. (3 ½ in.) long

Gross weight: 150.7 gr. (4 oz. 16 dwt.)

@c18ah.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 10:01 AM

This day 284 years ago: Gray returned to Peterhouse, as a Fellow-Commoner, and resided permanently at Cambridge for the rest of his life.

Find out more in the #ThomasGrayArchive:
https://www.thomasgray.org/resources/gplaces.shtml#c0005

#c18th #poetry #DH #ThomasGray #Peterhouse #OTD

@stephanieoffer.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 3:49 PM

I wrote a piece for the @southwarkcathedral.bsky.social diocesan newspaper about the research I'm working on with @rosemariemallett.bsky.social for #BlackHistoryMonth @blackhistorymonth.org.uk #Croydon #C18th #C19th 🗃✝️⚓️

@stephanieoffer.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 3:34 PM

Croydon enslaver and merchant, (blackmailer and money launderer) James Bourdieu was the 1st to subscribe to the new Lloyds of London in 1771 #C18th #BlackHistoryMonth #Croydon

London, December
We the underwritten do agree to pay our several subscriptions into the Bank of England in the name of a committee to be chosen by ballot for the building of a new Lloyds coffee house. Signed £100 James Bourdieu esq one hundred pounds

@johnobrien.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 12:29 PM

The latest Substack post on an eighteenth-century newspaper poem. This week, an anonymous parodic elegy on a lost chaw of tobacco, written in in imitation of Gray's "Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard." #c18th #c18 #18thcentury
literatureinc.substack.com/p/elegy-on-a...

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 10:10 AM

Clavicules de Salomon, #c18 #c18th #18thc transcription of a cabalistic MS, collection of @antiquaries.bsky.social

Two circular diagrams with mystical symbols and annotations. The MS is a transcript of a cabalistic work (relating to secret, occult or mystical doctrines) with diagrams (pentacles) and tables. The name ‘David Quelle’ appears written on one of the pages, perhaps an owner of the manuscript at some point. The text is a falsely attributed grimoire (manual of magic, sorcery, and spellcasting) said to originally have been by King Solomon. Many similar grimoires attributed to him were written in the Renaissance. The original type of text and inspiration for later copies was probably a Latin or Italian text dating to the 14th or 15th century.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 10:25 AM

This looks fun! URL in alt text. #c18 #c18th #18thc

Call for papers for Gothic Traditions, Transmissions, Translations 1730-1850 (17-18 June 2027) with a moody view of the exterior of Strawberry Hill in grey against a black backdrop with gothic tracery enclosing a map of the world

https://www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/gothic-conference/

@defoesociety.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 4:37 PM

New Publication Alert

Rogers P. (2026) Defoe Through the Lens of Braudel, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. doi: doi.org/10.1111/1754....

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

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 11:36 AM

Snuffbox made in China for the European market (c.1750-60), with Earle D Vandekar of Knightsbridge #c18 #c18th #18thc

White enamel box with gilt metal mounts and famille rose figures in landscapes. Monogram in puce surrounded by scrollwork and small flowers on the lid. The box is derived from Meissen originals

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 11:16 AM

Sugar basket by Hester Bateman (or workshop), 1783. With Nelson & Nelson, NYC #c18 #c18th #18thc

Ovoid bowl with c-scroll swing handle; short support and raised foot. Pierced ornament on bowl and foot. Beading. Detachable cobalt glass liner. Fully marked. Very good condition.
Dimensions: H (with handle) 7 1/4 x D 3 7/8 in. Weight (silver only): 5 troy ounces

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 10:09 AM

'Hans Sloane' botanical plate (Chelsea, c1756), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto. This would be the perfect serving dish for (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner this weekend #c18 #c18th #18thc

Off-white oval plate with lightly scalloped edge. Painted in green and brown tones - a flowering branch, a large swalow-tailed butterfly, smaller insects. Design based on drawings made by Georg Dionysius Ehret in the Chelsea Physic Garden and published by Philip Miller between 1755 and 1760. Pieces like this are called 'Hans Sloane' dishes after Sir Hans, founder of the Garden.

@c18ah.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 2:01 PM

On this day, Ambrose Philips (1674-1749) and Mary Tighe (née Blachford) (1772-1810) born this day.

Poems are included in the #EighteenthCenturyPoetryArchive:
https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/

#c18th #poetry #DH #OTD

Mary Tighe (1772-1810) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 11:23 AM

Vase for a garniture (Vauxhall, c1764-68), MFA, Boston #c18 #c18th #18thc

Vase in Sèvres blue and gilt painted foliage with a white reserve painted with a scene of a girl in a woodland setting. Two rather ear-shaped white handles with gilding. On the blue and gilt lid is a finial of pink flowers and green leaves. H. 13 cm (5 1/8 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Jessie and Sigmund Katz Collection. Inv. no. 1988.793a-b.

@c18ah.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 2:01 PM

Today marks the 315th anniversary of the birth of John Hoadly (1711-1776).

Poems appear in the #EighteenthCenturyPoetryArchive:
https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00108.shtml

#c18th #poetry #DH #OTD

John Hoadly (1711-1776), with Maurice Greene (seated) / © National Portrait Gallery, London

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 10:48 AM

Hardstone nécessaire with gold mounts (English, c1760), recently sold at Christie’s (not to me!) for €2,048 (incl. premium; est. €2,000-3,000) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Tapering cylindrical formed of grey striated agate, the gold mounts chased with rococo scrolls and flowers, with diamond push-button, the hinged cover revealing a penknife with steel blade, an ear-spoon / toothpick, a pen's mount and a later gilt-metal spoon, apparently unmarked and with later French control mark for 18 K. Height 10.2 cm (4 1/8 in).

@johnobrien.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 7:38 PM

My Substack is issuing a new poem drawn from an eighteenth-century newspaper--where poems abounded--every week. Here's the latest, on a poem published in 1784 about the first balloon flight in London that year.
literatureinc.substack.com/p/the-great-...

#18c #c18 #c18th #poetry #18thcentury

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 11:38 AM

There's a Chamberlain's Worcester vase (c1820) with @magdalenoxford.bsky.social on it, anyway. (Long) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Description from Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of the Herbert Allen Collection of English Porcelain (V&A, 1922), page 83, transcribed in the alt text for the second pic.

Plate 65 from the catalogue, with a B&W photograph of a vase with 'inverted bell-shaped body with two scrolled handles, each topped by a gilt head wearing a winged helmet. Square plinth, domed cover with knob in the form of a gilt conventional cauliflower. The view, of which the title 'Oxford' is written in red on the base of the vase, is painted in colours on one side of the body. The reverse is decorated with a formal pattern of festoons, rosettes, and stars in gold on a pale salmon-red ground. The cover and lower part of the body moulded with acanthus foliage.' The cover is marked 'Chamberlain's Worcester' and '155 New Bond Street London' in red. Heihgt 8 3/4 inches. The scene is adapted from plate i of The Copper Plate Magazine 1 (1792).