Dr Liam Sims's Avatar

Dr Liam Sims

@liamsims

Rare Books Specialist @theul.bsky.social | Hon. Secretary @bibsoc.bsky.social | Fellow @antiquaries.bsky.social | Venetophile | Bellringer | PhD on antiquarian networks in 18thC Lincolnshire (thesis linked in pinned post) 🌈

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19.09.2023
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Latest posts by Dr Liam Sims @liamsims

That copy is just the usual blue boards. But our other copy is one of 13 on vellum, bound in white pigskin over oak boards...

11.03.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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ooh decisions decisions

11.03.2026 14:40 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Cambridge University Library, University Museum of Zoology and the University of Cambridge - Collections Connections Communities

Here's an awesome natural history humanities PhD opportunity, working with Cambridge University Library & our insect & archive collections here at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social, exploring the links between entomology, life writing & environmental change. Please share!
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

10.03.2026 17:59 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 22 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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One of Edward Burne-Jones’s woodcut illustrations for William Morris’s Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), from the beginning of Troilus & Criseyde. Out for a visitor yesterday. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Syn.1.89.72.

11.03.2026 14:06 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Makes sense: this book is by Charles Holtzapffel...

11.03.2026 13:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ‘€

11.03.2026 12:02 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Montage showing pressed plant specimens from an 18th-century bound herbarium.

Montage showing pressed plant specimens from an 18th-century bound herbarium.

Lovely to be able to share this 18th-century bound herbarium for a workshop on botany and the book, funded by the Isaac Newton Trust and Trinity College, Cambridge. We’ve also digitised the volumes, so everyone can take a look!

cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-...

11.03.2026 08:46 πŸ‘ 74 πŸ” 24 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Haha

11.03.2026 09:40 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

What’s the lineage

10.03.2026 20:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Ha! You did not.

10.03.2026 19:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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One of the first pieces of classical music I heard as a child. Still makes me tingle.

10.03.2026 18:48 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Sometimes I want to book a meeting room in the building I work in & sometimes the first thing the system offers me is the 'CL1 Microplate Shaker' which sounds much more fun...

10.03.2026 16:36 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks!

10.03.2026 11:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Monday evening nosh with @aglmasters.bsky.social: pan-fried seabass with tomatoes, lime, ginger & garlic (plus tatoes & marinaded broc).

09.03.2026 20:08 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I have not...

09.03.2026 18:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Almost the 400th anniversary of the Cambridge bookfish!

09.03.2026 18:38 πŸ‘ 36 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Ah of course hehe

09.03.2026 18:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Ah bless you; don't worry too much. I'm fairly easy (if unadventurous)...

09.03.2026 18:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Manchester peeps. I will be in your fine city later this week. Where’s good to eat on a Friday that won’t be rammed?

09.03.2026 18:16 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0

those in Cambridge: I'm giving a talk on Wednesday to the Cambridge Bibliophiles on 'Obliterated Provenances in Early Modern Books' (Peterhouse, 8:45) ... and a talk on Thursday to the Material Texts Seminar on 'Halliwell-Phillipps, theft, and the problem of identifying manuscripts' (5pm)

09.03.2026 17:50 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
exterior shot of the pavilion Chehel Sotun, Isfahan

exterior shot of the pavilion Chehel Sotun, Isfahan

decorated ceilings of Chehel Sotun

decorated ceilings of Chehel Sotun

image of destruction

image of destruction

image of destruction

image of destruction

More destruction of the cultural heritage in Iran. Chehel Sotun in Isfahan, dating back to the 17th c, a UNESCO World Heritage site sustained damage in the war.

09.03.2026 17:31 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 40 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 5

Are you wearing the...

...the red cabbage dress? Yeah I am.

09.03.2026 12:39 πŸ‘ 53 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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COVER REVEAL. Really excited to show off the fantastic cover for my new book Sniff from @yalebooks.bsky.social. It’s a history of smells across time and space and hits the shelves on the 8th September. Pre-order from Yale, your local bookshop, or the usual suspects! yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

08.03.2026 13:13 πŸ‘ 107 πŸ” 32 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 3
White ground painted in red, yellow, blue and grey with two kilted Scotsmen, one with a musket and the other playing the bagpipes, in the centre of the plate, four scrollwork cartouches around the rim enclosing birds on flowering branches 

Catalogue (lightly edited): 'The figures in the centre depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. The source print of the piper is discussed by David Sanctuary Howard, 'Chinese Porcelain of the Jacobites - I', Country Life, January 25, 1973. Howard notes that the piper was taken from an engraving by George Brickham and published in A Short History of the Highland Regiment, London, 1743; and the private was also after a drawing by Brickham of the same date. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, and on July 18, 1743, Privates Samuel, Farquar Shaw, Malcolm McPherson were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia [in America] as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialized on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures.'

White ground painted in red, yellow, blue and grey with two kilted Scotsmen, one with a musket and the other playing the bagpipes, in the centre of the plate, four scrollwork cartouches around the rim enclosing birds on flowering branches Catalogue (lightly edited): 'The figures in the centre depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. The source print of the piper is discussed by David Sanctuary Howard, 'Chinese Porcelain of the Jacobites - I', Country Life, January 25, 1973. Howard notes that the piper was taken from an engraving by George Brickham and published in A Short History of the Highland Regiment, London, 1743; and the private was also after a drawing by Brickham of the same date. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, and on July 18, 1743, Privates Samuel, Farquar Shaw, Malcolm McPherson were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia [in America] as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialized on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures.'

Chinese export plate (c1745) at Rob Michiels Auctions, Bruges (est. €8,000-12,000) #Jacobite #c18 #c18th #18thc

09.03.2026 10:49 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Evening in London ringing at St Giles in the Fields.

08.03.2026 20:28 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a little girl in a pink jacket is sitting at a table with a pen . ALT: a little girl in a pink jacket is sitting at a table with a pen .
08.03.2026 20:24 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The mark of the Lyons printer Jean de Vingle, in his 1495 edition of Jacques Legrand’s β€˜Sophologium’, a collection of moral maxims from poets, orators, philosophers, and theologians. Came to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1664 with the books of Richard Holdsworth. Inc.5.D.2.25[2710].

08.03.2026 09:10 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The arms of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough (d. 1758), on a volume containing three works by the Sienese writer Ventura Falconetti, a member of the city’s Accademia dei Travagliati. All three were printed at Bologna in 1563. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Rel.d.56.3.

07.03.2026 15:36 πŸ‘ 33 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 6

Haha

06.03.2026 14:44 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Well lah-di-dah Tesco πŸ˜‚

06.03.2026 14:07 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 1