March 25th Today, I am...

...this gorgeous medieval illumination!

I am from the manuscript by Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish/Hungarian illuminator in the period of 1542 - 1600) and Georg Bocskay (Hungarian scribe, died in 1575). You can see beautiful flower arrangements, peacock, butterflies and insects. I was created during the years of 1561 1562 in Vienna, Austria. The medium used were watercolors, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment. You can find me at J. Paul Getty Museum. More of such beauties at Getty Search Gateway.
"An engrossed or illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript refers only to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, but in both common usage and modern scholarship, the term refers to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from Western traditions. Comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted. Islamic manuscripts may be referred to as illuminated, illustrated or painted, though using essentially the same techniques as Western works." In the Middle Ages all books were hand-written original works of art. During the early Middle Ages most books were used by priests and monks for liturgical purposes. New books appeared most often when a new monastery was founded. Books began to be produced for individuals as well as religious institutions as early as the 12th century.

other illuminated manuscripts:

 interesting medieval illumination facts:

* most illuminators were humble craftsmen who set up shop; some were independent traveling artists looking for commissions;  the best held the rank of court artists
* most illuminators remained anonymous until the late Middle Ages; later they began to sign their work, which often included a small pictorial representation of themselves somewhere in the work
* the whole process of book illumination was very time-consuming and costly, thus the illuminated manuscript was a luxury item for wealthy customers
* the word illuminated comes from the Latin word 'illuminare' meaning adorn, enlighten or illuminate and is defined as the embellishment of a manuscript with luminous colors (especially gold)
* the monks worked in the Scriptorium which was the room in a monastery used by clerics or scribes to copy manuscripts of religious text

* the different types of Illuminated manuscripts ranged from using miniature illuminations or full page illuminations to decorate the religious text
* Illuminated Manuscripts were generally written in ink on parchment or vellum (parchment was made by brushing, stretching and drying calf, sheep, or goat skin)

(facts found at Illuminated Page and Illuminated Manuscripts)

March 21st Today, I am...

...this gorgeous floral teacup!

I'm an antique tea cup with saucer English china tea set, could be purchased at Etsy for $159 but currently out of stock! Tea was introduced in Europe by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. The first merchant shipment arrived in 1637 but tea remained a rare good, together withother exotic Asian products, for several decades. Its demand grew steadily and it finally dominated the whole 18th century  overseas trade with China. At the beginning of the 18th century it was an aristocratic drink. England came to be a major destiny for the new drink. While both green and black tea where popular in China, black tea dominated the trade to Europe. Green tea was more difficult to keep fresh and easier to adulterate, so both companies and consumers had a preference for the fermented variation. A sweetened version of the beverage became popular in Europe, where it spread together with coffeeand chocolate. The new hot drinks, increasingly consumed along the 18th century, changed the daily diet in many countries. In the Netherlands, they were combined with bread to form an economic breakfast that replaced porridge, pancakes and beer and reorganized the daily meal system, from a two‐meal to a three meal regime. They also brought thehabit of eating sweets.

other antique teacups:

 

interesting tea facts: 

* tea bags were invented in America in the early 1800s, and were initially used to hold samples of teas brought from India

* there are many different kinds of tea, but they are all derived from just one plant: Camellia sinensis.; the color and variety of the tea (green, black, white, oolong) depends, however, on the way the leaves are treated

* at 11 o’clock in the morning, to stay alert, in England it’s common to take a break with a cup of tea and some cakes: Elevenses; before dinner, however, you can take ‘high tea’: a kind of reinforced snack

* «Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Me?» is one of cinema’s best-known quotes; it’s the famously cheeky line uttered by Joan Cusack to Harrison Ford in the classic film Working Girl.

* tea leaves are a natural means of keeping mosquitoes away
* Oolong tea, a Chinese and Taiwanese tea with a fruity aroma, is also often called Dragon’s Tea: these tea leaves, when put in teapot, often start to look like a dragon
* The London Tea Auction was an institution which lasted for 300 years; tea was sold using the ‘by the candle’ system: bidding for lots went on until an inch of a candle had burnt away

(all facts found at Tea Facts A-Z)

March 20th Today, I am...

...this floral vintage hand fan!

I was used plenty in the old days, not so much today (except for special styles, like modern gothic or steampunk, etc.). I am an implement used to induce an airflow for the purpose of cooling or refreshing oneself. Any broad, flat surface waved back-and-forth will create a small airflow and therefore can be considered a rudimentary fan. But generally, purpose-made hand-held fans are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (such as paper or feathers) mounted on slats which revolve around a pivot so that it can be closed when not in use. Since my invention many centuries ago, the folding fan became objet de désir, indispensable accessory, work of art, sign of distinction. Archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that the hand fan was already used in ancient Egypt and Greece. Christian Europe's earliest fan was the flabellum (or ceremonial fan), which dates to the 6th century. This was used during services to drive insects away from the consecrated bread and wine. Its use died out in western Europe, but continues in the Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian Churches. Hand fans were absent in Europe during the High Middle Ages until they were reintroduced in the 13th and 14th centuries. Fans from the Middle East were brought back by Crusaders. Portuguese traders brought them back from China and Japan in the 16th century, and fans became generally popular. The fan is still especially popular in Spain, where flamenco dancers used the fan and extended its use to the nobility.


Here is a sample of how the fan was used to convey messages:

• If a woman hid her eyes behind an open fan she meant –– I love you
• If she shut a fully open fan slowly she meant –– I promise to marry you
• If she placed her fan behind her head she meant –– do not forget me
• If she dropped her fan she meant –– we will be friends
• If she twirled her fan in her left hand she meant –– we are being watched

other fans pictures:

interesting fan facts:

* inspiration for the earliest fans came from leaves or bird feathers
* fans were made out of silk, paper, sandalwood, tortoise shell and mother of pearl
* fans for men are smaller and more plain than the regular ones
* in former times the manufacture of hand fans was completely artisan; today also industrial processes are use
* a feather fan was included in the gifts given by Christopher Columbus to the Catholic Queen Elisabeth after his first trip to America

(facts found at Teacher Plus and All Handfans)

March 17th Today, I am...

...this golden antique telephone!

Such a beauty! I am actually as hard to get as you'd think, you can purchase me at AliExpress for a very reasonable price! With so many carefully shaped details full of flowers and gentle curves intertwined with leaves. Once again, we can relate this kind of type to the Victorian era (I can't help it, I think it's becoming my favourite period). The beginning of a phone goes a long way back to Alexander Graham Bell, an expert in sound, but not so much in electricity (hence the assistant Thomas Watson). The break-through, actually, happened by accident, while experimenting with two springs connected by a long piece of wire. Bell and Watson were in different rooms, each with a spring, thinking when one of them waggled their spring, the spring at the other end of the wire would waggle too. Instead, the sound of the spring twanging in one room travelled along the wire and could be heard at the spring in the other room. The Queen found the whole process ‘most extraordinary’ and wished to purchase a set of telephones.

other antique telephones:

interesting telephone facts:

* the original telephone greeting was 'Ahoy!', suggested by Alexander Graham Bell and later replaced with 'Hello!', suggested by Thomas Edison
* the very first phone call was: “Watson come here, I want you!" made between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson in 1876 in Boston
* the memorable Nokia tone for receiving SMS text messages is Morse code for ‘SMS’
* Bell’s patent for the telephone was modestly titled ‘Improvement in Telegraphy’
* the Italian-American Antonio Meucci invented a telephone in 1871, which was five years before Bell, but was too poor to renew his patent for it
* in the early days, telephone wires were ranked according to how tasty they were to mice and rats
* as a tribute to Alexander Graham Bell when he died in 1922, all the telephones stopped ringing for one full minute (14 million telephones in US and canada were affected)
* Mark Twain was one of the first to have a phone in his home

(facts found at Knowlarity and Express)

March 10th Today, I am...

...this incredibly delicate wedding cake!

I am made by Sylvia Weinstock, an 85 years old wedding cake maker, the founder of world-wide known Sylvia Weinstock Cakes. In 1960, when they doubled the size of the kitchen, she began cooking and baking more elaborately so she could entertain. She took courses in French, Russian and Chinese cooking. It was a big thing then to show off when neighbors came over for dinner. She  especially loved to make desserts—pies, tarts, mousses and floating islands, which were meringues sitting on a pool of vanilla custard. She was motivated to produce not only beautiful cakes but also the most delicious cake. She uses crème de la crème, finest butter, heavy cream, fresh fruit and imported chocolate to create the most memorable delectable creations. "As a dessert designer to the stars, Weinstock has created confectionery statements for a host of celebrities and A-listers from Oprah, Robert De Niro, the Trumps, J.Lo, and Kim K. to the Kennedys, Clintons, and more. Her cakes have traveled around the world, often take weeks to decorate, have stood 6 feet tall and, at $30-a-slice and up, some have rung in at a whopping $70,000." (from InStyle)

other Sylvia Weinstock cakes:

interesting wedding cake facts:

* Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had their four-tiered wedding cake of nine feet tall and weighed 500 pounds; the royal couple even cut the cake with Prince Philip’s sword
* Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones had a seven-tier Devil’s Food cake that was ten feet tall; it took 515 hours to make
* according to the Guinness World Records, the chefs at the Mohegan Sun Hotel and Casino in Conneticut built the largest wedding cake ever for their New England bridal showcase in 2004; the cake weighed 6.818 tons 
* a bakery in Chester, England, displayed the world’s most expensive wedding cake, valued at $52.7 million; the eight-tiered cake had 4,000 diamonds 
* according to an old legend, a single woman who sleeps with a slice of the groom’s cake under her pillow will dream of her future husband 
* in the heyday of the Roman Empire, before cake became a wedding standard, the bride and groom would get a loaf of barley bread
* the tiered wedding cake dates back to medieval times. Wedding guests would pile up scones, biscuits, and other breads, and the couple would have to kiss over the pile without it falling down. If they did it successfully, they were ensured a lifetime of prosperity  

(all facts found at CommunityTable)