Exploring a Glittering Private Club from New York’s Gilded Age

Old, private members’ clubs can tend to be stuffy, conservative affairs. One of the last, living remnants of 19th century gentleman’s society, they bring to mind images of leather backed armchairs, and smoke filled rooms, where the respectable members sip snifters of brandy. But hidden away in New York, there is a certain club that stands…

New York’s Oldest Dim Sum Restaurant and the Secrets of Chinatown

Secreted away in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown is a small, peculiar street. Whilst most of the city is laid out in a uniform grid system, this tiny, one block long street is unusual in that it has a sharp, angled bend in the middle of it. On a map, it is marked down as…

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Finding New York’s Best Tea & Coffee in an Ancient Village Emporium

The nicest place to buy coffee and tea in New York, is also its oldest. Tucked away in the West Village is the quiet and unassuming McNulty’s, a small store that has been selling rare teas and choice coffees ever since 1895. Walking inside is truly like stepping back in time. It is also a…

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What Kind of Town Elects a Cat as its Mayor?

Alaska is home to many wild and wonderful sights. From remote gold prospecting towns, to vast expanses of barely populated wilderness, to soaring mountains. But one of its smallest treasures is also one of its most unusual – a town with a population of just over eight hundred, who have had a cat for their…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DXLIX)

1. Queen Victoria’s Boer War chocolate found in attic A 121-year-old chocolate bar that was given to British troops to boost morale during the Boer Wars in South Africa has been discovered in the attic of a National Trust property. The chocolate, still in its original wrapper and tin, was part of a batch commissioned…

The Lost Art of Victorian Human Hair Shrines

Meander through enough Sunday flea markets, and you’re bound to come across a Victorian grief shrine every now and again. They’re quite hypnotising objects, with their lacquered wood frames and bulbous glass encasing tiny flower-baskets, spindly trees, and elaborate landscapes. Take a closer peak, and you’ll realise you’re looking at a shrine made of someone’s…

Strange Objects of Desire: Victorian Glassware

If there’s one thing I’m almost certain about when it comes to Victorians–it’s that they had a heck of a lot of time on their hands. Without Instagram to fill those empty moments, Pinterest to procrastinate through their evenings or Netflix to swallow up their weekends, Victorians by default, were a pretty creative and curious bunch.…

Curiosity du Jour: The Talking Victorian Bouquet

The Victorians loved their secrets. They hid them in the details but wore them on their sleeve with the help of a few small but elaborate accessories. The nosegay, also known as a posy or a “tussie mussie”, was one of the more discrete lady gadgets of yore that had multiple uses… For one, if…

There might be a Secret Painting Hiding in that Old Book of Yours

Books can be magical things, but some as it turns out, may be more magical than others. They might look like ordinary old books, but they’re hiding a curious little secret in plain sight. A fore-edge painting is a scene painted on the edges of the pages of a book; invisible when closed. The technique…

The Coded Couture of Antique Lacework

They were like snowflakes spun from silk, sought after just as feverishly as gold on the black market. Whether they were twisted with pearls or tied with silver knots, no two pieces of lace were the same in 1765. All too often forgotten in dusty attics today, for centuries, lacework was all about how you…