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@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.

@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.

@inneskeighren.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 11:12 AM

Might any Francophone colleagues be able to identify the source of the maxim (from "an Asiatic Minister to His Sovereign") being quoted here, in a letter of May 1796? "Sois ferme dans les resolutions,—vif & courageux dans l’Execution,—mais prudent & circonspect avant l’Entreprise." Merci! #C18

A photograph of an extract of a handwritten letter, dated 20 May 1796.

@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).

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 9:57 AM

Inkstand with view of Merton College (Chamberlain’s Worcester, c1816), LACMA. (Long) #c18 #c18th #18thc. Could there be one with a view of @magdalenoxford.bsky.social ?!

Pink and white scrolly inkstand with gilding the central panel has a naturalistic view of Merton chapel in brown tones. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. Walter T. Wells, photograph © Museum Associates/LACMA (56.30.13a-d)

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 10:09 AM

Teapot (Wedgwood, c1770), at Bonhams, NYC (est. US$2,00-3,000) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Catalogue description:

Attributed to the Rhodes Workshop, the globular shape perfectly suited for a concentric 'target' pattern painted in chestnut-red and centred on each side with a five-pointed pinwheel floret in black and chestnut, the leaf molded spout and scroll handle mottled in a similar palette, 5 1/2 in. (14cm) high, both cover and base marked with numeral '4' in red

@yalebooks.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 11:12 AM

Granville Sharp was one of the earliest and most influential figures in the British campaign against slavery. Michael Bundock, author of A Meeting on Mincing Lane, explores his extraordinary life.

yalebooks.co.uk/blog/who-was...

#BlackHistoryMonth #History #c18

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 10:19 AM

Wish I could get to this! URL in the alt #c18 #c18th #18thc

Poster for Lewis Walpole Library symposium on Hogarth: His Art, Life and Times - A Tribute to Ronald Paulson

https://walpole.library.yale.edu/programs/hogarth-symposium-2026

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 11:05 AM

Jewel cabinet (Sèvres, 1825-26) given by King Charles X of France to King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, Cooper Hewitt, NYC. (Long) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Neoclassical cabinet with double doors mounted on a table-like stand with two lapis columns. On the panels of the doors are Sèvres plaques in pink and red with medallions depicting classical scenes surrounded by garlands. The case of the cabinet is mounted in gilt bronze and surmounted by a gilt peacock displaying its tail

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 10:25 AM

Gilt bronze medal (c1712) with Queen Anne on one side & her elder half-brother, James, the legitimist claimant, on the other, at Spink (est. £500-600) #Jacobite #c18 #c18th #18thc

Cast and chased medal with portraits based on medals by John Croker and Norbert Roettiers. Obv. Anne, laureate, draped and looking left, inscription ANNA AVGVSTA. Rev. 'James III', in armour and mantle, looking left and periwigged in the style of Louis XIV, with the inscription CVIVS EST ('Whose [kingdom] is it?]. The medal would have appealed to High Church Tories who were dismayed by the events of 1688 but who accepted the reign of Anne and were yet persuadable to accept her elder brother as her successor instead of the German distant cousin waiting in the wings.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:22 AM

Large hard-paste porcelain tray/plateau à baguette (Sèvres, c1775), with E&H Manners, London #c18 #c18th #18thc

Painted with a central classical trophy against a ground of cornflowers and roses in a gilt trellis. The flowers are by Jean-Nicholas le Bel le jeune (1765-93), and it is gilded by Henri-Martin Prevost (1757-97). The painting of the trophies is attributed to Louis-Gabriel Chulot (1755-1800).40.0 cm across. Marks: Crowned Interlaced ‘L’s in red; LB for Jean-Nicholas le Bel le jeune; HP for the gilder Henri-Martin Prevost

@nguthrie.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 10:17 AM

Turner, self-portrait (1799), Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

The young artist portrays himself with a steady gaze. His hair is short and looks quite grey. He wears a dark coat, loosely fastened grey waistcoat, white chief and loosely tied cravat. Too-shiny gilt wood frame, purple wall.

@nicolaparsons.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 9:04 AM

Applicants must be ANZSECS members. To join and gain member-only trial access to Gale Databases, including the Gale Digital Scholar Lab visit: anzsecs.org/gale-anzsecs...

Happy to field questions!

#c18 #18thc #bookhistory

@johnobrien.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 1:32 PM

A new (free) Substack post, this one on Samuel Johnson's final work, first published in the *Public Advertiser.* Subscribe if you'd like new posts like this every Tuesday. #c18 #18th #c18th

literatureinc.substack.com/p/samuel-joh...

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 10:17 AM

Sir William Beechey, The children of Sir Francis Ford giving a coin to a beggar (1793), Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

A thin young beggar takes a coin from the rather nervous-looking daughter, dressed in pink and white with a matching bonnet. Her brother , in a red suit with trousers and a large black hat with a black ostrich plume, stands between them with a questioning gaze at the beggar. A spaniel looks up at the poor boy

@asls.org.uk Sep 29, 2026, 1:31 PM

Joanna Baillie’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥 (1810): A Virtual Public Reading
21 Nov, online. Free

A virtual public reading & discussion of Baillie’s “Highland play”, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥 – an early example of the Scottish “National Drama”
#C18 #theatre

Zoom link: essex-university.zoom.us/j/93091876464

JOANNA BAILLIE'S THE FAMILY LEGEND (1810): A VIRTUAL PUBLIC READING
DATE AND TIME: SATURDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2026, 6:00 - 9:00 PM (GMT)
LOCATION: ONLINE

Please join members of the Baillie Working Group for a virtual public reading of Baillie's The Family Legend, organised by Sarah Burdett and Diane Piccitto. Attendance is free.
Meeting link: https://essex-university.zoom.us/j/93091876464

With thanks to the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies, University of Essex.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 9:41 AM

Henry Wallis, Chatterton (1856). Horace Walpole was (unfairly) vilified in his lifetime over the Chatterton affair; the 19C Chatterton revival didn’t help his reputation. Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Melodramatic portrait of the dead poet on a bed in a garret, a casket of papers by his bedside

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 9:32 AM

William Hogarth, scene from John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera where Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit plead for the release of Macheath, each believing she’s his wife (1735). Mack the knife … Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Inside a prison, a group of figures. In the centre, a man dressed in a scarlet coat and black Twickenham. To his right, a kneeling young long wiman in white pleads with the gaoler. The gilt wood frame has a dark wood carved portrait of Hogarth in an oval surrounded by trophies of the arts