Category Archive: Big Sensations
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…
“Completely Wanton”
Encyclopedia of the Exquisite‘s entry on Heels focuses on how Marilyn Monroe wore them with such va-va-voom back in the mid-20th century. In Niagara, a film noir shot in 1952, she played a vixen with a walk so provocative that…
Freeze, please.
It’s finally time to sharpen up my blades—I’ve been waiting for over eleven months now. The oldest known ice-skates, 4000 year-old strap-on horse bone blades, were dug up near a Finnish lake by archeologists in 2007. But while ice-skates have…
Furoshiki Chic
The great Japanese art of origami is found in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, but today I’m interested in its cousin—furoshiki, using square pieces of prettily printed cloth to wrap up packages. During the 1600s, furoshiki, literally meaning ‘bath mat,’ were…
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