Blog
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What actually was the London season?
It seems that whenever we turn on the TV to watch Regency-based period drama, or pick up a historical novel set during this period, there are so many references to the London season. Bridgerton, of course, has much of its storyline powered by the London season and the actions of the ton in the capital. read more
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Did women actually use dance cards at Regency Balls?
I wanted to deep dive into a little bit of a mystery in period drama: you often see at balls in period drama women recording the names of their dance partners beside the name of each dance in a little card – a dance card – tied to their wrists with pieces of ribbons, with read more
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Mini-Post | Queen Charlotte and Charlotte, North Carolina
I recently spent a day exploring Charlotte, North Carolina, which is called the Queen City in honour of its royal namesake: and here is a statue of the lady herself! Initially founded as a hamlet in 1768, it was named in honour of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort to George III, with her birthplace (Mecklenburg) read more
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Marie-Antoinette’s biggest fan: Empress Eugénie
Fewer women have captured cultural imagination like Marie-Antoinette. Her fascination endures today, and it did so almost immediately after her death in the French revolution. And one of her biggest fans, who sat at the helm of cult-like adoration for who they saw as a martyr queen, was Empress Eugénie. Empress Eugénie was born in read more
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Mini-Post | Charles-Antoine Coypel
I am obsessed with the luxury of the fabrics, bows, ruffles and utter GLOW of this piece in the Met’s collection: to me, it is so romantic, enhanced by the use of pastels. This is a Coypel portrait of Marie Elisabeth de Séré de Rieux and her husband François de Jullienne. Julienne was a collector read more
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What is a Cabinet of Curiosity?
One of my favourite things that I spotted in the second half of the third season of Bridgerton was the presence of cabinets of curiosity in Penelope and Colin’s sitting room. It seems the perfect set addition for our intrepid and intellectually engaged couple (I tried to find a still of the set, but couldn’t!): read more
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Balloon flight in the early nineteenth century
One of the marvels in the first part of season 3 of Bridgerton is an innovation fair with, at its centre, a balloon. During this era, people were fascinated by flight and the skies, and balloon flight was still very new. The first recorded flight in Europe happened at Versailles on 19th September 1783, when read more
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Visiting Gunter’s Tea Shop
I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite things is to go out for tea (with croissants in the morning, and cake in the afternoon, if possible!), which is a hobby we share with our eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ancestors. One of the most famous tea shops in London during this time was called read more
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Book Review | “The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh”, by Claudia Gray
When you think of the novels of Jane Austen, if you were pressed to think of the most odious of all her characters, who would you choose? One of my favourites, so to speak, is Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Pride and Prejudice. Whilst not an outright villain, she is utterly – sometimes deliciously – read more
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What women read in the 18th & early 19th centuries
To celebrate – finally! – the release of the second half of season 3 of Bridgerton, in which I’m hoping our lovely heroine Penelope Featherington gets her happy ending, let’s talk about one of Penelope’s favourite activities: reading. Her mother makes her pretend in front of Lord Debling that she doesn’t understand the book she read more
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Dr. Lizzie Rogers 