#17th c. britain

[jeannepompadour]

Portrait of Louise de Keroualle by Simon Verelst, late 17th century

[fatehbaz]

In the summer of 2020, [...] Black Lives Matter protesters tore a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston from its plinth in the centre of Bristol and rolled it into the harbour. [...] [C]ritics [...] argued that this type of direct action was “erasing history”. Britain’s prime minister at the time, Boris Johnson, claimed that to remove statues of figures like Colston from the public square was “to lie about our history”. Sir Trevor Phillips complained that Britain’s public history was being “erased entirely” [...]. Yet rather than lead us into an era of collective forgetting, the tearing down of Colston’s statue transported his name – and deeds – into the public consciousness.

This week, the renewed attention towards Colston bore fruit when the Guardian revealed that a historian, Brooke Newman, had unearthed a document showing that in 1689, Colston transferred £1,000 of shares in the Royal African Company (RAC) to none other than King William III. The exposure of the extent to which the monarch was financially intertwined with the slave trading company of which Colston was a director does not teach us less about history, it teaches us more.

---

The activities of colonial companies like the RAC, which enjoyed a monopoly over the English trade in slaves from the west African coast, are often presented as distinct from the internal history of the British Isles.

Yes, there may have been the odd massacre performed in the service of British imperialism, but these were the actions of rogue merchants in distant tropical lands, operating far from the watchful eye of Westminster and the living embodiment of British sovereignty, the monarch. This makes it easy to delete the actions of the RAC from the national record: the 84,500 men, women and children who, during Colston’s time with the company, were taken by its ships from their homes in west Africa to suffer a life of slavery in the New World.

A quarter of them would not even survive the journey, so horrific were the conditions aboard Colston’s ships.

---

Yet this separation between internal royal histories and external colonial histories has always been a [hidden] spot in our understanding of the past. Companies like the RAC needed to be granted a royal charter just to exist: they couldn’t be just registered and incorporated like companies today.

And furthermore, as the Guardian’s research has illustrated, there was often a cosy personal connection between the ruling kings and queens of this island and its slave-trading and colonial companies. This extended from James II acting as a governor of the Royal African Company to George II being a shareholder of the South Sea Company, which held the contract to supply enslaved Africans to the Spanish colonies in South America. [...]

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The new revelations arrive at a difficult time for the monarchy, with the coronation of a new king seeking to shore up the disruption caused by the passing of the long-reigning Elizabeth II. [...] Leading politicians in Australia and Jamaica, countries where the British monarchy traditionally enjoyed a great deal of public support, are now campaigning to follow in the footsteps of Barbados, [...] a step towards the Caribbean island “leaving our colonial past behind”. The rising unpopularity of the British monarchy in the once-reliable British West Indies was made evident by the protests that greeted [...] William and Kate, during their tour of the region last year. [...] The relationship between the British royal family and the former colonies isn’t just a question of symbolism or constitutional law. It is an entry point into a deep and bloody history [...]. It is a history that the lid has only just started to be lifted on.

---

Text by: Kojo Koram. “Those who tore down Colston’s statue helped lead us to the truth about slavery and the monarchy.” The Guardian. 7 April 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[redundant2]

The hottest tea from Lady C in 2023

God knows why and I'm clearly a masochist, but I had a whim to watch all her 2023 videos and have transcribed the juiciest bits. (Watching them at 1.5 speed helps...a little.)

1/19/23:

“I am telling you everybody is sitting on a massive secret. . . Massive! They have been doing so for awhile. The family didn’t know about it! For quite awhile! They were actually enlightened by the public in dribs and drabs. More than that i do not wish to say at this juncture. There is nothing the RF have to apologize for.” 

"I know what each side has on the other and let me tell you something - Harry and Meghan have nothing compared to what is had against them."

1/10/2023

"Harry seems to have never understood in his 38 years on this Earth that there's a reason why the Buckingham Palace press office exists. He ought to know it only too well.

"They were busy putting out fires to preserve his reputation and presenting it from being scorched. Until he left the royal family and then started to attack them, at which point they've let him speak for himself.

"I'm telling you, I know as a fact of one huge (when I tell you 'huge', I mean HUGE! Bigger than his ego or Megan's ego) story that Buckingham Palace has been, behind the scenes desperately trying to douse.

"One. At least one."

1/7/2023

Diana had an affair with the Earl of Pembroke after William's birth but before Harry was born. "The 17th Earl of Pembroke was a tall, slim, dashingly handsome movie producer, with the ideal looks for a romantic hero. According to Barbara Cartland, his ancestral home Wilton House, in Wiltshire near Salisbury, was one of the most beautiful homes in Britain. Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, was top drawer.

"He and the rest of his family had always mixed in royal circles as I can personally attest, having met him in 1975 at a party given by Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. He was also the producer of the movie that destroyed Koo Stark's chances of becoming the Duchess of York. He didn't flip my light switch, but he flipped Diana's."

1/5/2023

Viewer Question "I want to know whether you can assure us that Harry and Megs will get their comeuppance this year."

Lady C: "You don't have to wait that long. Sometime this year, on more than one location, Harry and Megan are going to discover that what goes around, comes around and if you prod the bear long and hard enough, he will not only get up and growl, but he will swipe at you and he might even tear your raiments and remove your masks, and you will be revealed in all of your ingloriousness for what you truly are.

"Take it from me, you don't have that long to wait. A few months - there's a lot in the pipeline. "

"Oh, people are going to get their just desserts. They're going to discover that attack was not the best form of defense. Sometimes coming clean is a far better policy.

"(The Royal Family) came to the conclusion, quite justified it has to be said, that Harry wanted them to breach the rules governing the press and the royal family for his and Megan's convenience. It wasn't only for their convenience, to the best of my information. It was more than for their convenience. More than that, I do not wish to say on that particular point." (Implying that Harry wanted them to cover something up?)

1/3/2023

"I'm choosing my words very carefully. There are persistent reports from extremely well-placed people, some of whom are long-standing friends of Harry's, that Harry and Megan lead entirely separate lives. They are de facto separated, although they are living supposedly and ostensibly and superficially and very occasionally under the same roof.

"Harry is trying to make tracks back with friends, many of whom have spurned his attempts but he's not trying to make tracks back with the family because he is insistent that he is in the right, he's always been in the right. incidentally Harry's always had a massive ego, and has always been pretty uncontrollable.Tthat was one of the virtues of Meghan: she was able to control him, as we've seen, but that allure seems to have become water to a large extent under the bridge. I think William has a far more realistic attitude of what the outcome of all of this is going to be: very sad."

"Remember, Meghan she told the queen, 'Use me as you will, as if the queen was a John. Very interesting, that comment that she made." 

Bonus: 12/31/2022 - New Year's Eve

"I don't think Harry's book is going to stay on the best sellers list for any length of time, unless of course Harry and Megan start to come clean." (raises her eyebrow.)

"Meghan's like an egg beater in one's brain, but I'm going to leave you with a sword. You're going to see Megan in all her shorn glory. That's right -depend on it. Megan is going to be revealed to the world as she truly is. That's gonna be something worth seeing."

12/20/2022 - (This is the one that intrigues me most.)

"Harry and Meghan were absolutely right to be terrified (in Liverpool), and I have no doubt she was playing every card in the book in case what had gone down, came out. Let me put it that way. But he didn’t, and they are really dumb to be belaboring the point. Because now, it’s only a matter of time before what went down, it does come out. Let’s see if she commits suicide then, because what went down is definitely not going to be something he or she wants to come out. I make that point for what it’s worth.

Netflix is laying the ground for assisting in what is the most flagrant sleight of hand and manipulation ever perpetrated upon the public."

What is Harry looking down at? This was their visit to the Wirral, near Liverpool. Is this what Lady C is referring to?

[transmutationisms]

hello caden, do you know anything about horticulture therapy? i'm taking a class on it and there's a big emphasis on how medieval european medicine taught that working in a garden is good for your health (apparently in medieval Spain hospital patients would do it to pay off their debts and they found they had better health outcomes). there's also stuff about dr benjamin rush. i don't know much about him but i am lightly skeptical of everything i've read so far. i'm curious to hear your take

as in, do i think it works, or do i know of it being a therapeutic practice? on the former, basically no, not the way proponents claim. on the latter, yeah horticultural therapy/gardening was commonly prescribed when there were broader turns toward occupational/work therapies, the ideas generally being that patients needed 1) moral discipline of the variety encouraged by physical labour 2) something to focus their minds on 3) exercises that could strengthen the weakened or injured body 4) exposure to fresh air and nature 5) a way of 'contributing to society'. which of these justification/s were used varied by location and time period: eg, in the us and france, there was a pretty dramatic shift in the latter half of the 18th century toward hospital reform that focussed on improving sanitary conditions, and this led to (among other things) a bigger push for outdoor activities, courtyard access, gardens, airflow, &c; also in these countries in this period, certain trendy empiricist ideas were often invoked to justify claims about the moral benefits of physical work, which obviously was very helpful to people who wanted, eg, standing militaries and large workforces in these countries that were dealing with political instability.

benjamin rush was definitely big on horticultural therapy in philadelphia, specifically in the context of psychiatric therapeutics; he was an advocate of occupational/work therapy in general. in the french context in particular, gardens have also had some other specific valences, owing to lockean and rousseauvian ideas about the moral value of seeing / contemplating nature, as well as a fashion for orderly gardens as demonstrations of imperial management of nature & territory from about the 17th century onward. (british gardens have historically had a similar ideological function, though britain is not my wheelhouse.) gardening also had specific political resonances and uses because university and hospital gardens historically functioned as sources of pharmacists' botanicals, and because acclimatising exotic species has long been a state-funded economic enterprise intended both to introduce profitable plants into the metropole and to examine the conditions under which organisms could be adapted to different climates. this was a question of great interest to, eg, governments that were trying to hold and profit from settler colonies. so, there were a lot of different reasons gardening in particular was historically such a big part of occupational therapy prescriptions.

none of this inherently means that working in a garden has zero therapeutic benefit. and i'm obviously coming at this from a historical angle and not a medical one per se. but, when i run across a therapeutic recommendation that has this type of history of being deeply entwined with moral claims, political uses, and capitalist and colonialist exploitation, i'm generally very hesitant about assuming it 'works' without compelling reason to think that the justification / evidence for recommending it has radically changed in some way. i specifically have some reasons to be really suspicious of the claim that horticultural therapy 'worked' in that medieval spanish case you mention (i will throw some methodological notes under a cut in case you care, along with a couple historical texts that are just interesting).

occupational therapies in general are still heavily moralised, and are blatantly aimed at getting people 'back to work' in service to employers and governments that depend on their labour-power. obviously, participating in activities you enjoy is generally good for your overall well-being, and for some people one such activity very well could be gardening. but the idea that gardening has some specific health-promoting essence reeks of assumptions about the morality of physical labour, the idea that illness or unwellness is caused by laziness, &c. justifying the practice by appealing to medieval european hospital therapeutics is not impressive because again, the actual reasons for this therapy being recommended in those contexts were, as a general rule, highly political & politicised; none of this is operating in some ideal realm of 'objective' medico-scientific evidence. and, just to spell it out: occupational therapies are appealing to a lot of physicians and institutions because they make it easy to place the emphasis on patients' individual responsibility to 'better' themselves through hard work, and because they easily slot psychiatric treatment into capitalist ruling ontologies: there's no challenge here to the underlying political-economic conditions that cause and worsen human misery or sickness.

as a side note this is all what i think about whenever i see those tumblr posts that are like "cure your depression by having a hobby and doing something with your hands :) get on the alaskan salmon fishing boat :)" but uh that's neither here nor there i guess

regarding the claim about medieval spanish hospital patients:

it's honestly hard to even evaluate this sort of thing directly in the written historical record. medieval european hospital sources tend to be heavily dominated by physicians' records and treatises (depending on time and place, many/most hospital patients may not have even been literate), which means there's not much by way of patient voices in there. there would also be a huge difference between, say, someone who was committed to an institution for the rest of their life and was made to work in the gardens, versus a wealthy patient who may have been encouraged by a physician to do some work in their own gardens, probably even on their own land. also, as the case in question suggests, occupational/work therapies constantly run into the zone of just being blatant economic exploitation of patients, so when we read these archives with critical eyes, any claim to efficacy of such treatments needs to be pretty heavily scrutinised.

you should also keep in mind that european hospitals have historically not always been institutions that patients were expected to leave: i'm not well-read in spanish medical history specifically, but many european hospitals have historically been more of a 'last resort' type of place, where you basically got admitted if you were dying and had no other options, and/or were sent forcibly because you were indigent or perceived to be causing some sort of 'public nuisance'. if you want to talk health outcomes for such institutions, the confounding factors here are going to be so massive i don't know how you could possibly wade through them to say anything conclusive about whether occupational therapies 'worked', especially given that the written medieval record is, yknow, hundreds of years old and sometimes things do get lost (or were never written down in a permanent place at all). also, those patients who did leave hospitals did not generally, afaik, keep in close contact with their physicians, which would make long-term health outcome tracking of this sort difficult—if anyone even attempted to do it!

there are certainly contexts where local/family physicians kept records on specific patients for a long time, but the sorts of long-term large-scale medical 'studies' we would now expect to see in order to back up claims of therapeutic efficacy just didn't really exist prior to the 19th century or so, partly for logistical / bureaucratic reasons and partly because (speaking generally) european medicine in the middle ages tended to emphasise not universal physiological rules but rather the differences between bodies, with the physician's job being to fine-tune the individual's personal biological balance in order to maintain a state of health. the idea of collecting statistics on a huge population to determine a universal biological condition of health/normality doesn't really become professional orthodoxy until the 18th century at the earliest. this is not to say that medieval european medicine had no normalising function or purpose, but it didn't really work in the exact same way that medicine in the era of social sciences and social statistics does. the way that particular claim about spanish hospitals is framed sounds (to me!) a bit too copacetic with current therapeutic evaluative principles not to raise my eyebrows.

if you care about tracking this down i would suggest you follow whatever footnote or reference this claim came from, and see if the author explained their methodology to evaluate their historical sources (if not, big red flag already lol). you would also want to go footnote-jumping until you find the actual historical source, and with luck, possibly consult it online (many archives these days digitise sources, some even on request! everybody say thank you archivists) and make your own evaluations. but ^^ those are just some considerations i would start with and that make me think this claim may lack historical rigour or rely on shoddy evaluation of sources.

a few books off the top of my head that talk about on gardens, gardening, and occupational/nature therapy in general (sorry they're basically all french context):

Sun-Young Park, Ideals of the body: architecture, urbanism, and hygiene in postrevolutionary Paris

Chandra Mukerji, Territorial ambitions and the gardens of Versailles; and "Entrepreneurialism, land management, and cartography during the age of Louis XIV" in Merchants and marvels ed. Paula Findlen & Pamela Smith

Dora Weiner, The citizen-patient in revolutionary Paris

Jessica Riskin, Science in the age of sensibility: the sentimental empiricists of the French Enlightenment

Emma Spary, Utopia's garden: French natural history from Old Regime to Revolution

Sarah Easterby-Smith, Cultivating commerce: cultures of botany in Britain and France, 1760–1815

[yoga-onion]

Legends and myths about trees

Celtic beliefs in trees (6)

Ogham alphabet and tree calendar

The Ogham alphabet is the most ancient Irish writing script. There, every letter of the alphabet is associated with the name of a tree, and for this reason, ogam is sometimes known as the Celtic tree alphabet.

The ogham script was a secret means of communication for the druids and also a key to the spirit world.

There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of which are in southern Munster. The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Details of the Celtic tree calendar are as follows:

B for Beth (Birch) - December 24th - January 20th

L for Luis (Rowan) - January 21st - February 17th

N for Nion (Ash) - February 18th - March 17th

O for Onn (Golden Gorse) - March 21st Spring Equinox

F for Fearn (Alder) - March 18th - April 14th

S for Saille (Willow) - April 15th - May 12th

H for Huath (Hawthorn) - May 13th - June 9th

D for Duir (Royal Oak) - June 10th - July 17th

U for Ura (Heather) - June 21st Summer Solstice

T for Tinne (Holly) - July 18th - August 5th

C for Coll (Hazel) - August 5th - September 1st

Q for Quert (Apple) - September 2nd - September 29th

E for Eadha (Aspen) - September 21st Autumn Equinox

G for Gort (Ivy) - September 30th - October 27th

Ng for Ngetl (Broom) - October 28th - November 24th

Ss for Straif (Blackthorn) - Samhain/Hallowe'en

R for Ruis (Elder) - November 25th - December 21st

I for Idho (Yew) - December 21st Winter Solstice

A for Ailm (Pine) - December 23rd Birth of the Divine child

Ph for Phagos (Beech) - all year around

木にまつわる伝説・神話

ケルト人の樹木の信仰 (6)

オガム文字と木の暦

オガム文字は、最古のアイルランドの表記文字 (アルファベット)。そこでは全てのアルファベットが木の名前と結びついており、このため、オガム文字はケルトの樹木のアルファベットと呼ばれることもある。

オガム文字はドルイドにとって密かな伝達の手段であり、また霊の世界に導く鍵でもあった。

アイルランドとイギリス西部の石碑には、約400の正統派の碑文が現存しているが、その大部分はマンスター南部にある。アイルランド以外で最も数が多いのは、ウェールズのペンブルックシャーである。

ケルトの木の暦の詳細は以下の通り:

B は Beth  (ｼﾗｶﾊﾞ) - 12月24日～1月20日 LはLuis (ﾅﾅｶﾏﾄﾞ) - 1月21日～2月17日 NはNion (ﾄﾘﾈｺ) - 2月18日～3月17日 OはOnn (ﾊﾘｴﾆｼﾀﾞ) - 3月21日・春分の日 FはFearn (ﾊﾝﾉｷ) - 3月18日～4月14日 SはSaille (ﾔﾅｷﾞ) - 4月15日～5月12日 HはHuath (ｻﾝｻﾞｼ) - 5月13日 - 6月9日 DはDuir (ﾛｲﾔﾙ･ｵｰｸ) - 6月10日～7月17日 UはUra (ﾋｰｽ) - 6月21日・夏至 TはTinne (ﾋｲﾗｷﾞ) - 7月18日～8月4日 CはColl (Hazel) -8月5日～9月1日 QはQuert (ﾘﾝｺﾞ) - 9月2日～9月29日 EはEadha (ﾎﾟﾌﾟﾗ) - 9月21日・秋分の日 GはGort (ｷﾂﾞﾀ) - 9月30日～10月27日 NはNgetl (ｴﾆｼﾀﾞ) - 10月28日～11月24日 SはStraif (ﾘﾝﾎﾞｸ) -サムハイン/ハロウイーン RはRuis (ﾆﾜﾄｺ) - 11月25日～12月21日 IはIdho (ｲﾁｲ) - 12月21日 冬至 AはAilm (ﾏﾂ) - 12月23日 神の子の誕生 Ph は Phagos (ﾌﾞﾅ) - 1年中

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Richard van Bleeck - Portrait of Sir John Holt - ca. 1700

oil on canvas, height: 124.5 cm (49 in) Edit this at Wikidata; width: 99.7 cm (39.2 in)

National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

Sir John Holt (23 December 1642 – 5 March 1710) was an English lawyer who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 17 April 1689 to his death. He is frequently credited with playing a major role in ending the prosecution of witches in English law.

Historian John Callow argues in his 2022 book, The Last Witches of England, that sceptical jurists, especially Holt, had already largely stopped convictions for witchcraft under English law even before the Witchcraft Act 1735 finally concluded such prosecutions. Callow particularly credits Holt with great courage in doing so in the face of religious pressure, mob violence, and popular superstitious belief in witchcraft.

The Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1735 which made it a crime for a person to claim that any human being had magical powers or was guilty of practising witchcraft. With this, the law abolished the hunting and executions of witches in Great Britain. The maximum penalty set out by the Act was a year's imprisonment.

It thus marks the end point of the witch trials in the Early Modern period for Great Britain and the beginning of the "modern legal history of witchcraft", repealing the earlier Witchcraft Acts which were originally based in an intolerance toward practitioners of magic but became mired in contested Christian doctrine and superstitious witch-phobia. Instead of assuming as the earlier laws did that witches were real and had real magical power derived from pacts with Satan, the new law assumed that there were no real witches, no one had real magic power and those claiming such powers were cheaters extorting money from gullible people.

The law was reverting to the view of the primitive and the medieval Church, expressed from at least the 8th century, at the Council of Paderborn, but contested by witch-phobic Dominican Inquisitors beginning in the mid 15th century, with some success in forwarding a new doctrine among the popes, as seen in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484), but with far less success among the bishops. Thus the Act of 1735 reflected the general trend in Europe, where after a peak around 1600, and a series of outbursts in the late 17th century, witch-trials quickly subsided after 1700. The last person executed for witchcraft in Great Britain was Janet Horne in 1727.

In the early modern period, witch trials were seen between 1400 and 1782, where around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. These trials occurred primarily in Europe, and were particularly severe in some parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Some witch-hunts would last for years, and some sources estimate 100,000 trials occurred. Groundwork on the concept of witchcraft (a person's collaboration with the devil through the use of magic) was developed by Christian theologians as early as the 13th century. However, prosecutions for the practice of witchcraft reached a high point only from 1560 to 1630 during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion, with some regions burning at the stake those who were convicted, of whom roughly 80% were women, mostly over the age of 40.

Richard van Bleeck (1670–1733) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.

[ltwilliammowett]

Christmas Punch

Some point to the ancient Hindustani word "paanstch", which means five: a great drink prepared from five key elements - sweet, sour, alcohol (arrak), water and spices. Some, however, attribute it to English merchant sailors who, though they did not invent the punch, very much drank it. Men working on British East India Company ships used it as a beer alternative in the 17th century. The sailors were known to consume large quantities of beer on their voyages, but when the ships reached the warmer waters of the Indian Ocean, the beer in the cargo bays became rancid and stale. Once the ships reached the coast, the sailors created new drinks from ingredients native to their destination: Arrack, citrus fruits and spices. Back at sea or at home, rum or brandy or other wines were more likely to be used.

Naval Officers and a Bowl of Punch by Thomas Rowlandson c.1790 (x)

The sailors brought punch back with them to Britain. With its exotic flavours and expensive ingredients, it became a fixture in the elite homes of 17th-century England and then a staple. Some parties, however, tended to get out of hand. Like the celebration of Edward Russel, captain-general and commander in chief in the Mediterranean. On 25 October 1694 he had a garden party for 6000 guests in his villa, and had his marble fountain filled with punch. For this, 4 hogsheads (c. 960l) of brandy, 8 hogsheads of water, 25000 lemons 75l of lime juice. 560kg of sugar, 3kg of nutmeg, 300 toasted biscuits and a pipe of dry mountain Malaga. The punch was served by a ship's boy who rowed through the fountain in a small boat.

Sailors sharing both punch and wenches. Taken from “Grog on Board” by Thomas Rowlandson, 1789 (x)

Punch entered the middle class as ingredients became more affordable during the 18th century. Punch was ubiquitous in the British Atlantic world and spread to the American colonies. So why is it considered more of a Christmas drink. It was because many of the merchants stayed at home during the winter months and made punch for the family on Christmas Day with the spices they had bought for themselves locally. This made it something special and is therefore often associated with the Christmas season, even though it was served all year round, especially when the spices became affordable for many.

And if you want to make now your own punch here is a nice recipe.

Bombay Presidency Punch in Bombay Government, August 13, 1694

Servings: 2 Prep Time: 5 minutes

2 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp  lime or lemon juice 1/2 cup rum 3/4 cups water nutmeg

In a non-reactive bowl or pitcher, mix together the sugar and the juice and stir until dissolved.  (Please use a glass, pottery, or stainless steel bowl or pitcher. Copper, cast iron, and aluminum will react with the acid in the lemon juice.)

Remove any seeds that may have made their way into the bowl.  Blend in the rum, and then the water.

Add ice.  Then grate nutmeg over the top.

Enjoy your tipple!

[souurcitrus]

Earth-18104

Since I started getting more into Marvel I made a bunch of OCs for the media, and with time I created a whole universe to insert them in the stories. So I'm gonna start posting here my personal time-line.

These events include stories from the comics, a bit of the cartoons and the movies. Many events or characters have their backstories changed and I will include my ocs here.

It's just a project I do for fun (and has been taking my mind in the last years help). It's not complete. There's still a lot to work but I got the basics.

Time-line

B. C - Events

• Okkara and the Enriched

• Birth of Apocalypse

• The Clan Akkaba

A. C. - Events

• Thanos' birth

• Creation of the Ten Rings

• Fall of Titan

15th / 16th / 17th Century - Events

• Odin brings the Tesseract to Earth

• Rise of Count Dracula

• Apocalypse and the Army of Darkness defeat Dracula

• Fall of Tenochtitlán

• Creation of Talokan and birth of K'uk'ultan

• Selene Essex becomes Lady Sinister

• Trial of Agatha Harkness

• Apocalypse is sealed by his subordinates

18th / 19th Century - Events

• Mystique's birth

• Victor Creed's birth

• Logan's birth

• Victor Creed and Tereza Márquez (OC) meet

• Howlett's Tragedy

• Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme meet

• Fall of Akkaba Clan

• Origins: Wolverine I

20th Century

1900 - 1930 - Events

• Origins: Wolverine II

• Wolrd War I

1940 - Events

• World War II

• Johann Schmist finds the Tesseract

• Steve Rogers becomes Captain America

• Bucky Barnes becomes his partner

• Phineas Horton creates the original Torch

• Sgt. Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos

• Foundation of Weapon X by Dr. Abraham Cornelius Truett

• Captain America dissappears and Bucky Barnes is taken by HYDRA

• Logan marries Itsu. Later she is murdered by the Winter Soldider and his son is taken

• Cain Marko and Charles Xavier become stepbrothers

• Wong starts his training in Kamar-Taj

• Howard Stak works for SHIELD

1950 - Events

• Cain Marko and Charles Xavier fight in the Korean War. Marko dissapears after finding the Temple of Cyttorak

• Max Eisenhardt marries Magda

• The original Torch dissapears / dies

• Logan meets Silverfox

• Magda and their daughter dies, Max Eisenhardt changes his name to Erik Lehnsherr

• 1950 Avengers

1960 - Events

• Charles Xavier meets Moira Mactaggert and Gabrielle Haller

• Sabretooth and Wolverine join Team X

• Adam Brashear becomes Blue Marvel

1970 - Events

• Professor X, Magneto, Mystique and Destiny create the first team of X-Men

1980 - Events

• Captain Marvel

• Ghost Rider

• The Incredible Hulk

• Iron Man

• Ant-Man and Wasp

• Hawkeye and Mockingbird

Age of Heroes - The first famous groups of heroes start to rise, the first conflicts earth went through after FF, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Decenders and the others formed.

1989 - Events

• The Fantastic Four

• Puppet Master

1990 -

• The Avengers

1991 -

• Jessica Drew works for SHIELD as Arachne

• Logan adopts Amiko Kobayashi

• Matt Murdock debuts as Daredevil

1992 -

• The X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman and Beast)

• The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

• X-Men VS Juggernaut

• Sam Wilson becomes the Falcon

1993 -

• Simon Williams joins the Masters of Evil as Wonder Man

• New Avengers (Black Panther, Hercules, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hawkerye, Falcon)

• Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk

1994 -

• Sue Storm and Reed Richards Wending

• The Fantastic Four meets Black Panther

• Dane Withman becomes Black Knigt

• Z'Nox attack

• Wade Wilson becomes Deadpool

• Silver Sufer and Galactus

• Alex Summers becomes an X-Man

• Betsy Braddock becomes Captain Britain

1995 -

• Mesmero attacks Krakoa. Lorna Dane joins the X-Men as Polaris

• Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat

• Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man

• Jessica Jones becomes Jewel

• Heroes for Hire (Luke Cage and Danny Rand)

• Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin

• Natasha Romanoff leaves the Red Room and joins SHIELD, working alongside Mockingbird and Hawkeye

• Frankie Raye joins the Fantastic Four as Photon.

• The Avengers battle against Ultron and Vision

• Among us stalk the Sentinels! Ororo Muroe and Sean Cassidy join the X-Men

• Frank Castle becomes the Punisher

• Jean Grey absorbed the power of the Phoenix

1996 -

• Hank McCoy joins the Avengers

• Greer Nelson becomes Tigra

• Secret Empire

• Avengers / Defenders War

• Flint Marko becomes Sandman

• Second Genesis.

• Hulk VS Wolverine

• Cyclops starts a new team of X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Thunderbird, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Sunfire)

• X-Men VS Erik the Red and D'Ken

• Wanda Maximoff and the Darkhold

• Darren Cross becomes Yellow Jacket

• Wanda uses her magic to create her sons

• Mystique and Destiny start a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

• Kitty Pryde and Alison Blaire join Xavier's Institue

• Dark Phoenix and death of Jean Grey. Cyclops leaves the team

• Kree / Skrull War

1997 -

• Days of Future Past. Rachel Summers and Lucas Bishop join the X-Men

• Cyclops meets Madelyne Prior.

• Rogue absorves Carol Danvers powers

• Rhino VS Spider-Man

• The trial of Hank Pym

• X-Men VS the Brood

• She-Hulk joins the Avengers

• Wanda and Vision find out their sons are magic creations of the Darkhold

• Illyana Rasputin is captured and taken to the Limbo

• New Mutants

• The Morlocks

• Rogue joins the X-Men. Logan marries Mariko.

• Beta Ray Bill!

• Venom arrives at Earth

• Hawkeye creates the West Coast Avengers

• Forge joins the X-Men

• Curtis Connors becomes the Lizard

1998 -

• Jean Grey returns

• Nathan Summers is born

• Mutant Massacre

• Madelyne is corrupted by the demon N'Astirh, becoming the Goblin Queen

• Asteroid M

• Fall of the Mutants

• Franklin Richards is born

• The Punisher took over the Assassins' Guild, and later became a substitute teacher while investigating drug trafficking at a school

• Wolverine and Jubilee work together against the Hand

• Gambit joins the X-Men

• Genosha X-Tinction Agenda

• Legacy Virus

1999 -

• Kree/Shi'ar War

• X–Cutioner Song

• Rise of Midnight's Children

• Maximum Carnage

• Fatal Attractions

• Bloodties. Fabian Cortez kidnaps Luna Maximoff

• Sabretooth goes to the X-Men after he starts losing control of his feral side

• Cyclops and Marvel Girl marry

• Generation Next and Phalanx events. Emma Frosts takes the new mutants as her students. Blink dissapears.

• The Hellions die

• Peter Parker meets Olivia Octavius, who later becomes Dr. Octopus

• Sabretooth escapes. Angel loses his wings

• Ozyamndias comes to warn the X-Men about the return of Apocalypse

2000 -

• Jessica Drew joins the Heroes for Hire

• Graydon Creed's assassination

• Apocalypse returns with his Knights

2001 -

• Mantis creates Adam Warlock. Later Gamora is sent to kill them, but decides to betray Thanos. With Drax, Groot and Rocket, they become the Guardians of Galaxy.

• The Thunderbolts

2002 -

• Sepent Crown's arc. Lemuria and Talokan are revealed to the world

2003 -

• Jessica Drew returns as a heroes and joins the Heroes for Hire with Cage and Rand

2004 -

• The start of Infinity Gaulent arc. Earth's heroes lose the battle to Thanos. Half of the Universe dissapears.

• The X-Men split in Team Gold and Team Blue

2005 -

2006 -

• Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson marry

2007 -

2008 -

2009 -

• Mayday Parker is born

2010 -

• The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Guardians of Galaxy and Denfenders join forces to fight Thanos once more

• Thor becomes king of Asgard

2011 -

• The Avengers rebuilt their base.

• Scott Lang joins the team as the new Ant-Man.

• Emma Frost and Scott Summers re-open the Academy X

2012 -

• E is for Extinction

• Runaways!

• Jean Grey dies fighting Xorn

• Gitfted / The Mutant Cure

• Ana Corazon becomes Spider-Girl

• Logan meets Laura Kinney

• The Winter Soldier Returns

2013 -

• M Day happens

• Vulcan takes the throne from Lilandra

• Peter Quill joins the Guardians of Galaxy

2014 -

• The Young Avengers!

° Iron Lad (16), Kate Bishop (17/18), Wiccan, Speed (16), Patriot (16), Hulking (16), Sting (14), Jonas (??)

• The New X-Men

° Armor, Loa, Prodigy, Cuckoos, (15), Rockslide, Pixie Hellion, Flubber, Gentle, Wind Dancer, Surge, Wallflower, Onyxx, Quill, Network, Wither (14),

° Mercury, Indra, Dust, Ink, Laura, Elixir, Kidogo, Trance, Dryad, Icarus, Tag, Preview, DJ (13), Wing, Wolf Cub, Rubber Maid, Bling!, Anole, Match, Specter (12)

• Stryker attacks Xavier's Institue

2015 -

• World War Hulk

• Birth of the Mutant Messiah

• The Avengers and other heroes fight Kang. Sam becomes Captain America

2016 -

• Skrull Invansion

• Dark Reign

• The X-Men move to Utopia

• The Inner Circle attacks Genosha

• Hope returns as the Messiah

• Hank Pym opens the Avengers Academy

2017 -

• Children's crusade

• Hope and the Lights

• Apocalypse Solution. Warren Worthington III becomes heir of Apocalypse

• Fear Itself

• The Schism between the X-Men happens

2018 -

• Miles Morales (13) becomes Spider-Man

• Logan opens the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning

• Jean Foster is diagnosed with cancer

2019 -

• The Phoenix returns

• Rage of Ultron. Hank Pym dies

• Khamala Khan (16) becomes Ms. Marvel

2020 -

• Ms. Marvel, Nova and Spider-Man create the new Champions

2021 -

2022 -

2023 -

• The Mutants create Krakoaland

[viera-may-in-emerdon]

Hunting the Stowaway Doll

"It took no expert to find that Tinies were afraid of storms. But nobody realised this carried over to Borrowers as well." - Harry Firth, 2034, On The Book Of Borrowers.

August 14th, 2040 (Page 1 i think)

Inaku.. To think she was out at the docks at this time of night. By now, she had become aware of human technology having advanced enough for cameras to see her fellow Borrowers as she watched a cart filled with her Borrower brothers and sisters moved to prison. Nowadays, Inaku was one of just 7 Borrowers left in the increasingly hostile land of Britain. She moved hastily, the storms unrelenting and each raindrop threatening her life as she ran for any safety, eventually managing to hide in a vessel.

August 15th, 2040 (Page 2?)

All Inaku could hope was that the storm passed before the vessel she was on took launch. She had snuck onto a cruise ship in hope of safety at the seas, only to hear over the intercom..

???: "One stowaway detected, likely a Borrower. Find them and capture them."

Inaku realised that she had messed up, though a few moments too late as the cruise ship was being tugged out to sea. Now, she had a defined goal on top of borrowing from the vessel: Survive. She assumed Borrowers were being put through extinction, a radical result from her lack of awareness in the news.

(Page 3)

"ike.. ike a." Inaku was a Borrower of many talents, but speech had never been one. She had adopted simplicity in the form of just words from toki pona, initially to hide her plans. No matter how well Inaku hid, that unforgiving storm and the crew always seemed to be just minutes behind her. As such, she was always on the move and it was already getting to her. But at least she was managing to borrow chunks of food from around places in the ship's upper decks.

August 16th, 2040 (Page 4 maybe???)

Inaku overheard a crew member, specifically the Captain.

"With the Borrower Rehabilitation, I only have a few days to find and help this poor Borrower. But until then.. Why are they always out at night?"

He was onto her.. And this was exceptionally bad news. She couldn't go out in the sun, her grey skin meant the sunlight was her lethal weakness. By now, the storm had subsided physically, so jan lanpan lili ike Inaku had some leeway.. But had it come in time?

Page 5

She was done with this. The humans were now able to trace just a minute behind her or were even in grabbing range. Attacking now would be suicide. But she was already trapped in the Cafeteria, in the night where she would have specialised. This was it.. She was suddenly picked up by a human. It was the captain again.

Captain: "Oh, my. You're the Borrower we've detected? You're quite the intriguing lass.."

Inaku never once responded, out of fear. The Captain held her quite gently, but tightly enough so she couldn't grab her sword.

Captain: "Oh, you.. can't speak? I think you'd make a fine addition to the Rehab.."

Page 6

Inaku always thought the Borrower Rehab plan was to kill off her kind, so she refused all co-operation. As soon as she was let go, Inaku slashed the Captain's hand and borrowed some blood to drink, before running out to the deck.

All she saw in that moment once she was on the deck was a blinding white. But she knew what that meant: Sun.

After seconds, she was already roasted unconscious and carried back inside.

August 17th, 2040 (Page 7 maybe? Idfk anymore)

For Inaku, waking up was agony.. She had almost gotten herself killed by accident by running out to the deck and now she paid the price. The Captain was still next to her, although he seemed worried.

Captain: "Hey, hey, don't panic.. I assume you're a Borrower with a sunlight allergy? You're a one-of-a-kind, you know that? Just.. Don't try what you did again, okay?"

For the Borrower, life was seemingly over to her own eyes. She failed to hide, meaning she failed the Borrower Code..

(Imma leave it at that.)

[lizziestudieshistory]

17 Questions + 17 People Tag

I was tagged by @oneanxiousstudybuddy and @gwenlen-studies - thanks both and VERY sorry it took me this long. Life, as usual, has been hectic.

Nickname - Lizzie

Sign - Gemini

Height - I don't know and I think this question is a bit weird...

Last thing I googled - Andreas Vesalius, specifically the diagram from The Fabric of the Human Body depicting the inversion of male and female genitalia (I was having an...odd conversation with my boyfriend)

Song stuck in my head - Hellfire from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (this is linked to the odd conversation)

No. of followers - 926 👋

Amount of sleep - Errrm varies?

Lucky number - I don't have one?

Dream job - academic/historian

Wearing - black dress, cardigan, and tights

Films/books that summarise you - The Silmarillion, Emma by Jane Austen, and Being Protestant in Reformation Britain by Alec Ryrie (think they say a lot about me?)

Favourite song - Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush OR Dream Brother by Jeff Buckley

Favourite instrument - viola

Aesthetic - messy/chaotic academia (I wish this was more ✨️aesthetically✨️ pleasing but I'm a messy, overworked trainee teacher who was a messy, overworked student)

Favourite authors - Tolkien, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jane Austen, Natasha Pulley, Terry Pratchett

Random - I almost indoctrinated myself into becoming a Protestant when researching for my undergrad dissertation. 17th c. ministers are VERY convincing and their sermons got under my skin 😅

Tagging: whoever wants to do this, my usual tagees(?) have all either done this or have been tagged by other people. So if you want to do it feel free.

[jeannepompadour]

Gilbert Jackson Portrait of Sir Norton Knatchbull Bt., and his wife Mary Westrow, née Aldersey, 1629

[brassandblue]

(AU)  T H E S E  O L D  H I L L S  C A L L  (O l d  G o d s  o f  A p p a l a c h i a)

-

Era: 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st centuries

Setting: Mostly Appalachain Range, North America (& Britain)

Character(s): Arthur, Amelia, Goodsir, Blanky, Ben, The R*ilro*d M*n, D*ughter Dooley

Status: OPEN, Accepting Threads

-

(Pulled from the Old Gods of Appalachia website here.)

Long before anyone lived in these hills, beings of immeasurable darkness and incomprehensible madness were entombed here. It was during this bygone age, when the Appalachians towered much higher and more menacing than the gentle slopes and ridges we know today, that they were conscripted after a great battle to serve as the final prison for those dark forces. But of course, time marches inexorably on. Eons passed and the walls of the prison begin to wear thin. And Things that slumbered soundlessly below for millennia began to stir and become restless.

They began to call to those who would hear them.

To dig. To seek and find. To follow and serve. To keep this dark and bloody land for themselves and their masters.

The Green. The Dark. 

Blood. Earth. Coal. Rain. Fire. Woods. This is a world where names and places have power, where energies and spirits, crawling things, witches and haints, mouthless hunting entities that hunger, are all entrenched firmly in and around a mountain chain spread across an ocean and older than bone.

[ammg-old2]

Whether the Arthur of legend actually existed is the subject of much debate. Per the British Library’s Hetta Elizabeth Howes, historical records show that a man named Arthur led resistance against the Saxons and Jutes around the fifth and sixth centuries C.E.; some Welsh accounts reference a similarly gifted warlord. The king of modern myth, however, only began to take shape in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (1138).

Arthurian legends were widely shared throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, via manuscripts for the wealthy and oral storytelling for the broader population. Though earlier tellings emphasized Arthur’s strength in battle and nation-building skills, the tales eventually became part of the medieval romance tradition, wistfully yearning for a time of morality, chivalry and righteousness.

Arthur’s Stone was first linked to the mythical king prior to the 13th century, according to English Heritage. Its fame continued in the centuries that followed: Charles I camped in the area with his troops during the 17th-century English Civil Wars, and writer C. S. Lewis, who frequently walked by the site, based the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on it.

— Archaeologists Begin First-Ever Excavation of Tomb Linked to King Arthur

[amphtaminedreams]

AUGUST 2020->MARCH 2022: Photo Dump No.16

DATE SAVED, L-R BY ROW:

1. 26th November 2021, 12th November 2021 [Gucci Resort 2018], 18th February 2021 [source: instagram account @photojournal], 20th April 2021 [Lana Del Rey shot by Edward Smith for Blurt Magazine, Fall 2009 issue], 22nd December 2021, 18th August 2020 [graphic by Erin Hagerman], 26th October 2021, 28th November 2021 [Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea], 20th February 2021

2. 21st October 2021 [source unknown], 20th November 2021 [details @ Giambattista Valli Haute Couture F/W17], 25th May 2021 [source: twitter account @FUCKNMODEL], 22nd December 2021, 5th February 2021 [The Good Egg @ Kingly Court, Carnaby Street], 7th March 2022, 7th March 2022 [Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Friends, Season 7 Episode 13: The One Where Rosita Dies, aired 1st February 2001], 16th December 2021, 25th December 2021 [source: twitter account @leon444rdo]

3. 29th April 2021 [source unknown], 8th May 2021 [Rihanna photographed in New York wearing Are You Am I, 6th October 2016], 2nd January 2022, 19th July 2021 [graphic source: unknown], 15th January 2022, 26th November 2021, 1st February 2022 [Creative Debuts & Half a Roast Chicken present: Eve De Haan’s DON’T CRY OVER SPILT MILK pop-up exhibition, Canada Place, Canary Wharf], 27th February 2022 [East Street, Walworth], 29th January 2022

4. 15th October 2021 [source: instagram account @thepulpgirls​], 29th December 2021 [Urban Garden, Bournemouth], 2nd December 2021, 14th December 2021, 17th October 2021 [Brick Lane, Tower Hamlets], 24th November 2021, 12th December 2021 [Christmas by the River, Southbank, Lambeth], 24th June 2021 [Emerald Iridescent Draped Gown by Teuta Matoshi, S/S21], 21st April 2021

5. 5th May 2021 [Lana Del Rey for California Style Magazine, March 2018 issue], 5th January 2022 [Jon Hamm & John Slattery as Don Draper & Roger Sterling in Mad Men, Season 5 Episode 12: Commissions and Fees, aired 3rd June 2012], 4th February 2022, 14th January 2022 [Versace RTW F/W19], 16th December 2021, 6th August 2021 [personal style of Olivia Rodrigo, images from her instagram @oliviarodrigo], 19th December 2021, 26th October 2021 [source: instagram account @earthlywrappings], 5th January 2021 [background image: “How Am I Not Myself 03″, Myro Wulff @ Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea]

6. 13th March 2022 [Camden Arts Centre, Frognal], 28th December 2021, 17th October 2021 [work by Silvia Schaumloeffel @ The Other Art Fair, Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane], 18th January 2022, 28th June 2021 [source: reddit account /thoseoceaneyes], 10th February 2021 [Ave Mario, Strand], 19th August 2021 [graphic by Christine Owens, instagram account: @christineowensart], 24th May 2021 [”Flesh Fashion” designed by LeMÁine, instagram account: @lemaine__], 10th February 2021

7. 8th February 2022, 19th June 2021, 6th May 2021 [source unknown], 24th June 2021 [Forever Chamomile Gown by Teuta Matoshi, S/S20], 7th March 2022, 21st January 2022, 3rd September 2020, 29th January 2022 [Bermondsey Street, Southwark], 21st December 2021

8. 13th November 2021 [Gucci RTW F/W19], 23rd January 2022 [”The Black Brook”, John Singer Sargent, c.1908 @ Tate Britain, Millbank], 15th October 2021 [source: instagram account @omgkittyclub], 18th March 2022 [Bricklayer’s Arms, Southwark], 18th January 2022, 7th February 2022, 17th January 2022 [Bermondsey, Southwark], 12th August 2021 [still from Brad Montague keynote speech @ Fall CUE 2017, source unknown], 20th December 2021

9. 11th March 2022 [source: instagram account @posterjournal], 12th December 2021 [Bermondsey, Southwark], 7th March 2022 [Wolf Alice live @ The Guildhall, Southampton], 30th October 2021 [Fendi x Versace, Pre-fall 2022], 15th February 2021, 12th November 2021 [Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture S/S19], 15th December 2021 [The Boathouse, Christchurch Quay, Dorset], 14th December 2021 [Walworth Road, Elephant & Castle], 25th November 2021

10. 19th February 2022, 21st March 2022, 29th July 2021 [source unknown], 28th July 2021 [“Freak” music video still from Lana Del Rey’s “Honeymoon” LP, released February 2016], 14th January 2022 [Fendi RTW F/W18], 13th March 2022, 11th January 2022 [Circolo Popolare, Fitzrovia], 29th March 2022, 11th January 2022

[medicalastrology]

Academic Article #1: Medical Astrology in the 18th and 19th Centuries in Great Britain

Harrison, Mark. 2000. “From Medical Astrology to Medical Astronomy: Sol-Lunar and Planetary Theories of Disease in British Medicine, c. 1700-1850.” The British Journal for the History of Science. 33(1): 25-48.

"The idea that human health is shaped by celestial influences has always been prominent during periods of crisis, such as the plague epidemics of the 1660s or the cholera epidemics of early nineteenth-century India."

This article focuses on how the United Kingdom and its colonies during the 17th and 18th century viewed medical astrology in societies. With the Enlightenment movement, Industrial Revolution, and other events that caused scientific and technological advancements caused for the medical field to not rely on medical astrology heavily. However, due to astrology’s persistence in astrology, British practitioners Robert Boyle and Richard Mead would research ways to validate medical astrology practices. This dependency on medical astrology was also extended to regions of the world the United Kingdom colonized like the West Indies and India, where these areas used medical astrology to solve medical problems in society and on an individual level. The quote above was selected due to its relevance on how old astrology is as a practice and how it is used by various regions of the world to address problems and have a course of action.

[duxiaomin-blog]

The highest form of Chinoiserie thrives upon a comprehensive understanding of Eastern cultural integrity

In 18th-century Europe, not only was it the birthplace of modern aesthetic theory and consumerism, but it was also an era marked by rapid expansion of overseas trade for exotic goods. Concurrently, there existed a cultural and artistic movement that was both controversial and transformative in consumer patterns, often exerting influence on European society in the form of luxury commodities. This movement exhibited a strong and profound contradictory allure within the decorative arts of the time, known as Chinoiserie — the infusion of Chinese style.

Chinese products initially appeared in the parlors of Britain’s social elite as symbols of class, but quickly expanded to a broader market, fueled by the pursuits of fashion and emerging commercial classes. By the 1730s, rooms decorated with imported wallpapers, screens, porcelain vases, and blue-and-white porcelain panels became commonplace in country residences. By the 1750s, this style seemed to reach its zenith, with even modest London homes furnished with Chinese-style furniture. Simultaneously, William Chambers erected the renowned Chinese Pagoda in the vicinity of London’s Kew Gardens, while countless temples and Chinese bridges adorned the landscapes of gardens across Britain.

Starting from the late 17th century, Britain saw the emergence of a new type of furniture imitating Chinese designs, incorporating functionalities of writing desks and storage cabinets. These bookcases were typically crafted with outer layers of attractive woods such as walnut, or adorned with imitation lacquer. As outlined by Stalker and Parker in their treatise ‘A Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing,’ imitation lacquer could be painted in various colors including black, white, blue, red, chestnut, and olive.

The Chinoiserie cabinet from 1720, housed in the British National Trust

In the Chinoiserie cabinet from 1720 housed in the British National Trust, one can observe Palladian-style contours adorned with Chinese-inspired gilded motifs and painted decorations, creating a classic fusion of East and West in Chinoiserie furniture. Palladian-style furniture emphasizes symmetry, with its form evolving from concepts in ancient Greek and Roman classical architecture, as evidenced by the four Roman columns at the center of the cabinet. Additionally, Palladian-style furniture is characterized by its exquisite ornamentation, grand scale, and weightiness, akin to sculpture. Interestingly, the perfect symmetry of European aesthetics is softened when juxtaposed with Eastern influences, giving way to the naturalness and asymmetry of Eastern decorative patterns.

ChuCui Palace, Hidden Dragon, Earrings

If the Chinoiserie in British furniture in the late 17th century remained a Eurocentric, superficial, and formal fusion of East and West, then the emergence of ChuCui Palace in the mid-20th century weakened the Eurocentrism within Chinoiserie and bridged the aesthetic differences caused by the lack of communication between the East and West in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Chinoiserie jewelry created by ChuCui Palace is essentially based on Eastern aesthetics as its logic, Chinoiserie as its form, and Western jewelry craftsmanship as its expressive technique, resulting in classic works.

The ‘Hidden Dragon’ earrings created by ChuCui Palace caused quite a stir in the European jewelry industry when they were unveiled in the mid-20th century. The classic S-shaped and C-shaped curves in Chinoiserie make the dragon’s body smooth and elegant. The Eastern dragon is graceful and magnificent, completely abandoning the fierceness found in Western dragon totems. The piece is also rich in rhythm, whether it’s the winding dragon body or the release of breath through abstract cloud patterns. The contrast between simplicity and complexity in the intricate dragon body is just like a well-balanced rhythm, akin to the structure of a musical composition. The distant view of the Eastern dragon is not a literal observation but rather a poetic and artistic illusion — a reflection of the true essence of Eastern culture. The highest form of Chinoiserie thrives upon a comprehensive understanding of Eastern cultural integrity.

Delft imitation of Chinese porcelain

In 17th-century England, porcelain was closely associated with China to the extent that the country’s name became synonymous with the commodity. However, in the 1640s, the invasion of Manchuria and the establishment of the new Qing dynasty resulted in the destruction of the porcelain production center in Jingdezhen, China. Dutch merchants, on one hand, turned to Japan for supply, while on the other hand, the city of Delft emerged as a center for tin-glazed earthenware production in the latter half of the 17th century, selling imitation Chinese porcelain to the European market. Many of Delft’s ceramics were inspired by blue and white Chinese porcelain, often priced cheaper than Chinese or Japanese counterparts, leading to situations where both ‘original’ and ‘imitation’ ceramics were used in approximately the same timeframe and setting.

In addition to the blue and white color scheme, the Delftware factories also attempted to replicate the shapes of Chinese porcelain. However, during the ‘imitation’ process, there were significant changes in dimensions, with the ceramics produced emphasizing the solid, muscular shapes characteristic of European Baroque style, appearing more inflated and voluptuous.

The rise of Chinoiserie represents a historical testament to the intermingling of European culture with Eastern civilization. It is not merely an artistic style but a cultural exchange and cognitive collision transcending time and space. Its popularity is not merely about imitation but rather a profound understanding and interpretation of Eastern spirituality and aesthetics. Behind this lies a reverence and exploration of exotic cultures, as well as a respect and pursuit of human civilization diversity. The influence of Chinoiserie extends beyond the realm of decorative arts; it embodies people’s longing and imagination for the exotic world, while also reflecting the specific context and values of European society in politics, economy, and culture at that time. Therefore, the historical significance of Chinoiserie goes far beyond its surface glamour and extravagance; it is an essential part of civilization exchange and intercultural dialogue, vividly depicting the coexistence of human cultural diversity.