Miniature Must-Have Du Jour

It all started when I was looking to source a miniature French to English dictionary (as you do) for Messy Nessy’s Cabinet in Paris (coming soon). It wasn’t long before I found myself obsessing over a 2 x 2.7 cm red leather dictionary from the 1890s contained within a metal case complete with a magnifying…

A Forgotten Ode to the Little Paris Shopfront

I was walking along the Seine this weekend, slowing my pace for the lonely bouquinistes (the open-air booksellers that have squatted the quays of the river since the 18th century), when a dog-eared paperback caught my eye. Inside, it was filled with the most delightful illustrations of French boutiques from the 1920s; each storefront’s name inspired…

The Vault

Your Dream Fairytale Library is Hiding in Midtown Manhattan

A miniature palace of rare books is hiding in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan. All you have to do to enter is walk past the foyer of 225 Madison Ave and push a button deep in the back right corner. A door will swing open into a space that feels like it rolled right out…

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The Millionaire Teenage Ad Girl who wrote the Book on Jazz Age Etiquette

Are you haunted by the ghosts of your social mistakes? Have you ever suffered the humiliation of fluffing a greeting with an acquaintance in the street? Or the ignominy of using the wrong fork at the dining table? Around a century ago, such social gaffes and embarrassing blunders were seen to be daily pitfalls, waiting to…

Let’s Take a Tea Break at Beatrix Potter’s Cottage

It’s time for a little breather, don’t you think? So today, we’re popping over to Beatrix Potter’s old village, in the calm of England’s Lake District. We’ll stop by Buckle Yeat for a cup of tea, and stroll through the garden where so many of her children’s book characters — namely, Peter Rabbit — got…

Stop Everything, it’s a Historic Bookshop For Sale with Everything Inside it

Every once in a while, the Internet gods deliver us a property listing that hits every MessyNessy sweet spot. Quaint antique architecture? Check. Unexpected links to remarkable figures and inventions throughout history? Double check. Make it a library, and you’ve dreamt up our perfect spot, aka Clough’s Bookshop in Cherry Valley, New York. The 178-year-old…

Under His Pen, Art Nouveau became delightfully Trippy

Re-discovering history’s rebellious and obscure artists is one of our favourite pastimes on the internet. When their brushtrokes indulge their inner ghoul and become mischievous à la Edward Gorey, King of American macabre, or Oscar Wilde’s fearless illustrator who shook up Victorian society. Today, let’s unroll the black carpet for Mr. Harry Clarke and revisit…

And Finally, the Miniature Mouse Village of Your Dreams

Welcome to Mouseland, an adventurously cosy town where frogs take tea on lily-pads, mice set sail on miniature sailboats, and there are zero effs to give about anything in the real world that’s larger than a peanut. It’s the brainchild of Portland, Oregon-based author Maggie Rudy, who’s been making the mice for her children’s books…

The Book NYC has been Missing: Don’t be a Tourist in New York

I remember the moment I knew we had to write this book. I was fumbling around in the dark for a light switch in the attic of a salvage depot in Harlem. I was completely alone up there when those lights flickered on to reveal a room full of cobwebbed forgotten treasures, and in that…

Edgar Allan Poe’s Cottage Is Just Sitting There in the Bronx

Finding it there seems improbable. Absurd, even. Yet, on a sunny day in Sector G of the Bronx, amidst cheap Thai massage parlours and “99¢ Only” stores, stands the final home of the king of American macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. That the house stands after 221 years is a miracle alone. It’s been a quiet…