#does 1850s

[sweet-rabbit]

MITHRUN IS OF TOL INSTEAD OF KERENSIL DUE TO MARRIAGE don't lemme see people "correcting" me in tags or comments when it's in all caps

anywho, this was going to be another illustration for my fic, but didn't work out ie couldn't fit a scenario like it in the upcoming chapter that i'm still working on. decided to post it anyway 'cause i had fun. PS that's a phone Kabru's got, didn't feel a need to finish a background after all that plaid

[fauvester]

iskra garak-bashir as ingres’s princess debroglie… on a thursday..

[musewrangler]

It's 8 am and I am researching who invented baking powder. For my enrichment. But here's the thing---at some point, all of these foods and ingredients had to be put in someone's mouth. To test. Wild.

[daguerreotyping]

Daguerreotype of two seated gentlemen, each wearing a flower in the front of his waistcoat, c. 1850

[caterpillarinacave]

Do you have thoughts about Baby Henry and his Great Aunt Matilda?

Oh BOY do I.

I could literally go on and on forever but I should redirect you to this entire fic which is basically a coherent, carefully constructed, novel of those thoughts:

(Those with an astute eye will notice that I call Matilda Henry’s aunt, as in his fathers sister, as opposed to his great aunt. Maybe this is due to the copious amounts of inheritance fuckery brought up in the first chapter. Maybe I forgot because rereading nothing but shadows makes me sad. Maybe I can make it work and I’m going with it.) 

[the-insouciant-scientist]

👗 for Irving Merrit?

The handsomest lady! The prettiest gentleman! It's him, the bigender legend herself!

[kingofdorkville]

the town has a photographer too. maybe dude and i could get a few pictures. maybe some really cute ones if we can hold the pose long enough

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

michael spyres as lohengrin at the opéra national du rhin!!!

also here’s the full ONdR opera season, also featuring a very interesting survey of opera characters through the concept of don giovanni meeting them in hell

[endless-formsmostbeautiful]

Lee Remick in The Europeans (1979) dir. James Ivory

[heartbeetz]

Soooo glad I haven't actually moved yet. I know it means essentially wasting a month of rent (yikes!!!!) but I just checked the weather there and it's one of those "feels like -6°F" winters.

Though I suppose waiting this long means also having to eventually deal with moving in the snow... ughhh

[switchelsweets]

Y’all aren’t having your characters write on one of these?

Are you the "I have strong feelings about parchment" Tumblr user? If not, I feel like I saw you might know who they are. I was going to put parchment in a fic, but then I was like "no, I can't do that without asking the Parchment Person first because I don't want to get it Wrong."

...no, but I know the post you're talking about, and I too have strong feelings about parchment, esp because I've worked on it before.

I took an illumination course while getting my illustration degree and did an "H.M." in the style of a medieval manuscript on a small piece of the stuff.

Parchment is not paper. It's cured calf or pig skin.

It's thick, and HARD like non-corrugated cardboard. If it's been stored in a roll, it does not want to unroll. If it's been stored flat, it does not want to roll. It's got the same texture as skin, because it IS skin, and you have to account for that while working on it. It smells like rawhide. It actually takes ink in a really interesting way- there's a half-second to blend of fix something before it actually sinks into the parchment, but it doesn't bleed once it's in there. It also never comes back out. It's not bright white like paper, almost a buff color, and white stands out on it.

Fascinating stuff. Actually pretty fun to work on, but it's definitely a medium for highly polished and important pieces (like illuminated manuscripts), not for casual note-taking (because it's MAD EXPENSIVE to make)

I should go hit up the local art stores and get different paper-and-other-art-media samples to demo for everyone for fanfic purposes because they are VERY different things that have different purposes, prices, origins, and societal connotations, all of which can be used in your writing.

[daguerreotyping]

Daguerreotype of a handsome young man and his blurry dog, c. 1850

[cryptotheism]

I love when modern horror movies do this.

I was watching The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Let's play a game. If a coroner approached me with this symbol, what would I tell him?

Two big flags: That's a woven textile, and those are Roman letters. Most surviving Roman spells were written on stone or metal stele. Roman characters on papyrus practically screams North Africa, 1st-4th century AD.

Given, there is no textile on earth that could survive the stomach acid like this, so I'm assuming something supernatural is happening.

So north Africa, 1-4th century AD. That specific type of circle is clearly remineacent of Solomoic magic. The thing is. Solomonic seals were usually produced in an Egyptian milieu. Authentic North african magical characters usually have little loops on the end, because they're trying to imitate the ankh. Or they look noticably Greek.

Whats interesting to me, is that the symbol inside the circle is more Greek-Pythagorean than Egyptian. It's got that square capped with triangles. That's a neoplatonist sacred geometry thing.

Also, I have the movie paused, but I would bet money those numerals on the edges are supposed to correspond to bible verses. I would bet money one of them is supposed to be EX 22:18.

Which, if that's true, would mean that this isn't 1-4th century, but more like a post-golden-dawn reprint from the 1850s.

Official prediction: This bitch is supposed to be an 1850s American frontier witch. The prop designers get extra points if they want me to think she was part of the Salem witch trials, or some other sensational event like that.

[miss-story]

Countess Juliana and Wilhelm

Two of my NPCs from the Victoriana 3e campaign I'm running. Countess Juliana is a possessed Eldren and Wilhelm is a Noble Rat man a rarity in London. The pair have joined Queen Victoria's Court and caused quite a scandal. they run a small group of people called the Black Sheep Society. People who look out for the misfits in society.

Here are some bonus rats I did when I was practicing for Wilhelm

[vincentbriggs]

Getting a lot of comments about how beautiful my 1880s treadle is, and while yes it is lovely, it's fairly plain compared to some of the rarer & earlier machines out there!

This website has pictures of a whole bunch of them, which are worth clicking through if you're interested.

Whight & Mann, 1860s.

Gresham & Craven, 1870s.

Howe.

"The Alexandra", 1860s.

Smith & Starley, 1870s.

D.W.Clark, late 1850s.

JDSM Co., 1860s.

Wilcox & Gibbs. (This one is actually not super rare, there are quite a lot of them! Also it does chain stitch instead of lock stitch.)

Britannia Sewing Machine Co., c. 1870.

Britannia Sewing Machine Co., c. 1870.

Kimball & Morton, c. 1870. Apparently the front leg coverings come off, and the needle and presser foot are inside.

That's only a fraction of them, and I've still only clicked through less than half the list. That lion shaped one isn't even the only lion shaped model on there.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Hello, I have a question about fashion history.

Before I transitioned, I dressed 1850/1860s every day (with the accasional 1960s because miniskirts used to be fun before dysphoria took me hostage)

Currently my style is just misc vintage menswear, and despite all I look for in my fashion history books (the ones I use for my university costume course) I cannot figure out a way to make it more specific to certain era, other than with neck wear (but then you put a tie on and it could be any point in history again!)

What are some markers of specific periods in male historical fashion or what could I read to find out about them?

Ignore accessories right now and concentrate on fit and silhouette.

There is a world of difference between, say, 1840s and 1950s tailoring, even though men have been wearing suits & ties for ages now.

Look at these 2 fashion plates that were contemporary to the decades I just mentioned. Soft hourglass shape vs a sharp-edged wedge.

What I suggest is focusing on whatever era(s) you like best and picking apart the silhouette. Ask yourself things like:

How is this silhouette different from other eras?

Are the garments fitted or loose?

Where do pieces, like trousers, sit on the body?

How does the cut of the clothing influence the wearer's posture?

How does the fit of the clothing alter the wearers shape? What does it hide or change? What does it exaggerate?

What is it about a garment's construction that allows it to achieve these shapes? Pleats, darts, shaping via ironing, hidden structure/padding, etc?

Once you dial in the silhouette, you can then layer on details. But the silhouette is key to looking & feeling authentic!