Witch Doctor

Undertaker advertisement with a stock cut of a fancy hearse with flaming urns on the roof and drapes in the window. “ALL MEN MUST DIE.” You will observe that the above quotations does not say, all men CAN die, MIGHT die, MAY die; but “MUST” die. There is no escape. The debt MUST be paid sooner or later. It is our calling, to care for the mortal remains of loved ones who pass into the “great beyond.” Therefore, we wish to announce that we are prepared to perform the services required of us, FUNERAL DIRECTORS. We carry in stock a complete line of caskets of every style and trimming, and also coffins of all grades from the cheapest to the best. S.T. FREW & CO., Rock Hill, S.C.

#NationalFuneralDirectorandMorticianRecognitionDay #TheVictorianBookoftheDead
Cheery 1895 advertisement for S.T. Frew & Co. Funeral Directors. “ALL MEN MUST DIE.” You will observe that the above quotations does not say, all men CAN die, MIGHT die, MAY die; but “MUST” die. There is no escape.

I’m about halfway through creating this triptych of King Arthur’s Chough. Building up layers of tiny plants on the cliff edge for its toes to sink into. Two layers of extra thick 23 carat gold leaf. Repainting and restoring the details of the original panel. A labour of love. My favourite bird.

Stone carved cat ring in blue

People haven't changed much.

Cat ring from 1390 BC Egypt.

My photo shows a Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. Octopus detail from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures, including the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish, at the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.

Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

A skull, tilted back, and vertebrae down to t2 with some of the facial muscles and nerves depicted in wax. The right first rib is also present. Mounted on an ebonised wooden base against a dark grey background

Some of the anatomical features of the face and neck modelled in wax over bone. This was done by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson working in the late nineteenth century. He became much better known for his models than for his surgical endeavours

A wooden alter with a cross sitting on top and an large elaborate metal crucifix leaning against the front. There are skulls piled on top and round the base. The wall behind it is made of nearly stacked long bones interspersed with skulls.

The beautiful ossuary of Marville in France, which has featured on the title slide of a number of my talks (and do get in touch if you’d like me to give a lecture on ossuaries!). I’m off on a road trip on Friday and looking forward to seeing a few ossuaries that I’ve never visited before.

A silver skull with clenched teeth and hollow eyes - a case for a watch

Inside of a silver skull case watch showing the clock face.

#daylightsavingstime #springforward #springahead
Silver skull watch by Johann Maurer. Case 1655-1665; movement 1740-1760; dial 19th c.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead

photograph of a metal coffin plate labeled "The Sad Hour" with a clock face with Roman numerals and moveable hands. The clock face is surrounded by a wreath of ferns (or laurels) and lilies.

A black and white drawing showing a coffin surrounded by flowers, with a cross on the cover, as well as a sad hour coffin plate with a skeleton hand turning the hands.

#DaylightSavingsTime #SpringForward #TheVictorianBookoftheDead
This Sad Hour coffin plate, with moveable hands for the time of death, was the inspiration for this fantastic illustration by @landisblair.bsky.social for the entry "Death Token" in my book A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death.

An outline of a naked woman is embroidered on linen in the same bone white colour as the linen. She stands legs together, her right hand covering her groin, her left hand, palm up, extended slightly to her side. She looks to the right. Her entire body except for her belly is covered in intricate markings representing different neurological sensations. Her face is a mask of green lines, feathery grey lines cover her shoulders and chest. There is a thick band of intricate burgundy stitching around her waist. Her forearms and hands are covered in thick blue undulant lines. Her right leg has bands of burgundy along the muscles, with small dots around them. Her inner left leg has a thick line of blue running up it, with thin branches spreading towards her outer leg.

For this #InternationalWomensDay I’m sharing a symptomatology #embroidery, body map (2016), in which I stitched my #MECFS symptoms freehand over a few months. ME/CFS affects mostly women, and the symptoms are often ignored or not taken seriously because of medical misogyny.

#SciArt

A long pale pink dress with black and silver floral sequin embellishments around the décolletage. I t has a matching coat with long hanging sleeves lined in black

Back view of the long pink coat and dress ensemble that shows the drama of the long hanging sleeves an the black and silver floral sequin embellishments around decorating the back of the bodice of the coat

A black and white photograph of the pale pink dress and coat worn in the mid 1950s

The Fontana sisters designed this dramatic ensemble for Ava Gardner in the 1954 film The Barefoot Contessa, a confection of black and pink and sleeves and collar for maximum impact. Dreamy….. @metmuseum.org #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

the price of oil surging means you can burn your shein clothes, extract the oil, and make more money than you paid

Cover of A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death. Blue-grey background. A couple in black Victorian mourning clothes stand in postures of despair on either side of a greyish tomb topped with a skull and backed by a weeping willow tree. The tomb is the background for the title.

A list of the contents included in A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death

A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death is my guide to the basics of Victorian mourning, gorgeously illustrated by @landisblair.bsky.social.
ISBN: 978-0-9881925-4-6, 208 pp. 6×9” trade PB.
Please ask your bookstore, library, or museum shop to order it.
#WorldBookDay
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead

A photo of an upper denture. The plate is made of gold and has white porcelain teeth

This upper denture is from the 1920s. The plate is made of gold with soldered porcelain anterior teeth and porcelain tube posterior teeth.

I thought this was a single piece and just about lost my mind

Image of the moon in the night sky. It appears reddish in color.

Blood Moon alert! Totality—when the Moon is fully immersed in Earth's dark umbral shadow & appears blood-red—will begin at 6:04 am ET on 3/3 in NYC & peak at 6:33 am ET. Totality will last for ~58 minutes, after which the Moon will begin to exit from Earth's shadow.

Photo: NASA/GRC/Jordan Salkin

'Re-Thinking Victorian Women at West Norwood Cemetery' International Women's Day guided walk through one of London's Magnificent Seven with a guide from the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/re-thinkin...

A power vacuum, water and power issues, economic crisis, and sanctions. Surely this will end well.

A moment of calm this morning, the general mood is melancholy what with everything that’s going on in the world.

Here's another story about the #drone footage showing #orca and #whitesideddolphins cooperating to hunt #salmon. The #dolphins use sonar to help the orca find fish, then eat scraps

Orcas And Dolphins Hunt Together In Rare Ocean Partnership share.google/zvrnEifokgON...

Sarah Vaci is a "gender critical" artist who set out 4 years ago this month to create 100 portraits of "female detransitioners." To date, worldwide, she hasn't even found 100 to take part in her project, and at her current rate, it will take her 10 to 15 years to finish.

Why is this important? 1/

This is a really weird fantasia of Edinburgh (and its geography) as it never was and is *full* to the brim of the sorts of simple yet glaring errors and anachronisms you would never have gotten if you hadn't left it to a computer to just barf out an averagised slop answer.

A stone etching showing three Persian men offering bowls and jars to someone off screen, likely a shah.

Four women dancing at a Nowruz festival somewhere in the DC area. Each wears a difference dress of red, yellow, blue, and pink, and signs in Farsi and English indicate things like Persian rugs are for sale (one of which they dance upon).

The Iranian New Year begins at the Spring Equinox, called Nowruz. It celebrates the defeat of winter by forces of light and has been celebrated for at least 2500 years historically. #FolkloreSunday

Art: "War is not healthy for children and other living things."

Lorraine Schneider, 1967.

We are all soap lady soap.

My baby just started saying “witch” (pronounced “wee”).

Knowing I would not be “wee doctor” (🤭), I asked him to say “witch doctor”.

“Wee dada“ 🥹

#TinyJoys

Mushrooms turn dead wood into food and medicine which is better than anything any tech start up has ever done

A view of the bodice of a purple and red striped gown with a high crossover treatment at the neck, sleeves above the elbow and a line of ball style buttons that fasten at the side of the waist

Full length view of the purple and red striped 1950s dinner dress by Claire McCardell showing how the fitted crossover bodice radiates out onto a long, full skirt

Amongst the many reasons that I love the garments designed by Claire McCardell is her fastenings. They are always unexpected, rejecting the convenience of a zip for a neat row of buttons. This is a mid #1950s dinner dress with the most chic of bodices #museumatFIT #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

The greatest cat in the world

Morning.

This “living crystal” is a clump of rotating, jiggling starfish embryos in the lab of the biophysicist Nikta Fakhri. It embodies a state of matter known as an odd material that may have previously unknown biological functions. www.quantamagazine.org/starfish-whi...