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Toes Mustn’t Show
In 1818 the formidable French etiquette writer Madame de Genlis (1746-1830) reminded proper ladies that when lounging on a divan, chaise longue or daybed, they’d better hide their feet under a couvre-pieds. “Decency demands it because, stretched out like that,…

Tip Top
Plenty of stylish types have worn top hats—an entry in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite—over the years. But did anyone ever wear a top hat with more panache than Marlene Dietrich did? She made her American movie debut in 1930 in…

The Field of the Cloth of Gold
In one of those rare moments that brings together a handful of entries found in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met for a month-long gilded romp in 1520, cementing their friendship. In an…

Ex Libris
Bookplates! I’ve been doing some research on the personalized bookplates of centuries past, putting together a certain ahem-hem birthday gift lately. Since the first days when anyone lent anyone a book— or at least since the mid-15th century— nobles and monks…
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