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nguthrie.bsky.social
neil guthrie
@nguthrie.bsky.social
2K followers 340 following 1.4K posts
Collector. Antiquary. The Material Culture of the Jacobites (2014). Guthrie’s Guide to Better Legal Writing (2017, 2021). Trustee, George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
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Reposted by neil guthrie
cecs-york.bsky.social
Happy New Year from CECS! Please enjoy these pictures of the snow dusted topiary garden behind our home in Heslington Hall from this morning. May your year be suitably sprinkled with fresh ideas about the eighteenth century and bright paths forward in your research ❄️🌳❄️ #UKsnow #18thCentury
The 18th century topiary garden at CECS York, with a sculpture, pond and paving stones in front of it, dusted in snow. A path in snow, next to the 18th century brick wall that runs behind the topiary garden.
January 5, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
rhwhite.bsky.social
A set of 11 Chelsea porcelain dessert plates molded with twelve scalloped rims decorated with six alternating illustrations of birds and incised basketweave panels, and decorated with large flower bouquets and flower sprays in the well. Red anchor period, circa 1755. Birds, and lots of them.
MARKS A small anchor mark in dark red under each plate near the inside of the stacking rim. MEASUREMENTS 8 1/2” (21.6 cm) in diameter. PROVENANCE Pierre Durand and Khalil Rizk, 907 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Christie’s, New York, Sale 20906, The Collection of Pierre Durand, 26 January 2022, lot 156. For a similar example, also with twelve lobed borders and alternating bird decoration, see Elizabeth Adams, Chelsea Porcelain. London: The British Museum Press, 2001, pictured, p. 143. Many stern-looking birds along the rims.
January 5, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
katestrasdin.bsky.social
The retention of vivid hues allows a window into the wearing of a garment that has survived more than 250 years. The #1750s caraco brocade bodice demonstrates the beauty of a supplementary weft allowing the flowers to float above the blue. Sold via #AugustaAuctions #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
Back view of a bright blue brocade fitted bodice with multicoloured floral repeat. It has shaped elbow length sleeves and a peplum style hem Side view detail of the blue brocade bodice that focuses on the shape of the sleeve and the fit of the body A detail of the blue brocade silk fabric used for the 1750s bodice that shows the supplementary weft floral design
January 5, 2026 at 10:30 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Ice pail (William Davis period Worcester, 1776), Museum of Royal Worcester #c18th #c18 #18thc
Bucket-shaped vessel on three stubby feet, handles on the sides; lid with recessed top and central handle; separate, saucer-like stand. White ground with Worcester-blue rims and gilding, painted with exotic multicoloured birds and green foliage
January 5, 2026 at 11:30 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
And speaking of régime-change (but drawing no analogies), a pair of royalist candlesticks (French, silvered bronze, late #c18th #c18 #18thc or early 19th), with Antiques de Laval, Tréguier (Côtes-d'Armor). Below each drip-pan, the silhouette of the late Queen Marie-Antoinette
Candlesticks with tapered shaft and round base decorated with palemettes and Greek keys Detail of the section with Marie-Antoinette's profile. This kind of hidden (but not really hidden) iconography of sedition will be familiar to anyone acquainted with #Jacobite material culture. Was LouisXVI's even more pronounced nose too much of a giveaway, or did Louis candlesticks complete the set?
January 4, 2026 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
As I make my way sweating & cursing through an archive of the worst 18thc handwriting I’ve ever had to deal with… it’s nice to find a cheeky epigram from one of my subject’s mates indicating that they had trouble too
Epigram in an 18th-century manuscript hand, reading: “He writes at ease to show his breeding But easy writing’s d——d hard reading.”
January 3, 2026 at 10:19 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
A Christmas gift (intervention?) from a friend. Interested to read it; I had mixed views of Delbourgo's book on Sir Hans Sloane (2017), which I reviewed for The Scriblerian in 2019 #c18th #c18 #18thc
Cover of James Delbourgo, A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now (2025)
January 3, 2026 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
rhwhite.bsky.social
A porcelain snuffbox with hinged lid manufactured at Saint-Cloud circa 1740, possibly a Saint-Cloud copy of a Chantilly form. In the shape of a reclining man, painted in polychrome colors to the exterior and interior of the lid with silver mounts. Showing a laid back vibe for the new year.
MEASUREMENTS Length: 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm); height: 1 3/4 in. (4.1 cm); depth: 1 5/16 in. (4 cm). PROVENANCE Doyle, New York, Sale 17CN03, English and Continental Furniture, 25 October 2017, lot 357. Nice duds, flowers on the robe. Butterflies/insects inside the lid.
January 3, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Pietro Longhi, The Meeting, 1746, Oil on canvas, 24 x 19 1/2 in. (61 x 49.5 cm) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
"Longhi made his career with small-scale scenes of contemporary Venetian life, often focused on erotic anecdotes and not necessarily with clear narrative sequences. Like those of his English contemporary Hogarth, many of these compositions were engraved and circulated as prints throughout Europe. Here, amid the games of disguise that fueled flirtations during Carnival, a man in blue invites a woman for a tryst. The man in the red cloak holds keys to a private theater box that he is willing to rent to the couple for a private meeting. In the mirror overhead, the reflection of a canopied bed and a painting of the Holy Family offers ironic commentary on the scene." https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436905
January 2, 2026 at 5:14 PM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Happy dry(ish) January! One tiny Negroni doesn’t count, right?
Rich red cocktail with ice and slice of orange un a small crystal glass engraved with a crowned N (Napoleon III not Neil)
January 2, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
liamsims.bsky.social
Early nineteenth-century bookplate of the Manchester Subscription Library. Part of the collection of book trade ephemera assembled by A. N. L. Munby & now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Munby.c.131.
January 2, 2026 at 4:24 PM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Shell-form sauceboat with snake handle on a single rocaille foot (London, 1747). No maker's mark, but attributed to Nicholas Sprimont, silversmith & founder of the Chelsea porcelain factory #c18th #c18 #18thc
Although this piece carries no maker's mark, stylistic features suggest that it was probably made by Nicholas Sprimont (active as a silversmith 1743-47) or a close associate. Identical to a pair in the Ashmolean by William Robertson of London, hallmarked 1761, after prototypes by Sprimont, Paul Crespin and Paul de Lamerie from the late 1730s and mid 1740s. Robertson did not register his first mark until 1753, so is unlikely to have made the piece illustrated. See also Sally Kevill-Davies, ‘Some New Connections between Sprimont’s Silver and Early Chelsea Porcelain’, English Ceramics Circle Transactions 31 (2020), 105-27. Dimensions: 13.5 cm long, 10 cm high. Weight: 173g
January 2, 2026 at 11:22 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
😬 (hyphenated, however)
January 1, 2026 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
histparl.bsky.social
Died #OTD 1766, James Edward Stuart, son of James II.

In this #HistParl article, Dr Charles Littleton explains how James's birth eventually led to invasion, his father’s deposition, and ultimately a new constitutional framework:
The ‘warming-pan baby’: James Edward Francis Stuart - The History of Parliament
James Edward Francis Stuart. It was his birth, in 1688, that led to the now abandoned tradition of Home Secretaries being present at a royal birth.
historyofparliament.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:30 PM
nguthrie.bsky.social
The Beckford Journal just dropped! #c18th #c18 #18thc
Cover of vol. 31 (2025) in buff cardboard with an engraved portrait of William Beckford in profile, hair long, tied with a ribbon. Table of contents: articles by Daniele Niedda, Diana Berry, Stephen Clarke (x2), Timothy Wilcox and Jon Millington
January 1, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
rhwhite.bsky.social
Angry birds! A Sèvres porcelain bleu lapis ground pomade pot with cover, decorated with birds in landscapes within gilt line oval reserves, the cover decorated with a yellow ranunculus finial within a gilt line. I like how they're portrayed, the heavy lines make them somewhat menacing. (see ALT)
MARKS Marked underneath with Ls in underglaze blue with the date letter M for 1765 and the decorator’s mark cp for Antoine-Joseph Chappuis, le jeune (later l’aîné) active 1761-87. With an incised mark S and with a label from the Mary & Peter White Collection and written text with the inventory number 3975. MEASUREMENTS 3 in. (7.6 cm) in diameter, 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm) in height. PROVENANCE With W.W. Warner Antiques, 2012. Bonhams, London, Sale 31538, A Life in Ceramics: The Peter and Mary White Collection, 1 December 2025, lot 200. LITERATURE Mary White, Living at the Whites’ House, Volume 4, p. 42, fig. b. Just hanging out in a shrub, as one does.
December 31, 2025 at 11:56 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Born on this day in 1720, Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Silvester Severino Maria of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Prince of Wales and later King Charles III in the #Jacobite succession #c18th #c18 #18thc #OTD
White metal medal (believed unique) of the Prince in profile, c1750, with the motto LOOK LOVE AND FOLLOW (which, by this point, people had largely ceased to do). Reverse blank (not illustrated). Baptismal names as given in Frank McLynn's biography, citing BL Add MSS 30,090; Wikipedia, citing Susan Kybett's biography, gives them as Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir. ODNB follows McLynn - can anyone confirm which is correct? In any event, Louis, Casimir, Silvester, Severino and Maria would not have endeared the young prince to Protestant Britons
December 31, 2025 at 11:26 AM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Shell-shaped silver salt cellar (?) on three curved feet (London, 1752) #c18th #c18 #18thc
View from above Side view showing feet
December 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Pair of quadrille trays (Bilston, Staffs, c1770) #c18th #c18 #18thc
Pair of round, saucer-like dishes made of copper enamelled in white, each centre decorated with three hand-painted playing cards surrounded by sprays of flowers. Sides of the pans perforated by piercing the copper by hand before applying the first coats of enamel
December 29, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Luis Egidio Meléndez, Limes, a Container of Jelly, a Butterfly and Vessels, third quarter of the 18th century, oil on canvas (Museo del Prado, Madrid)
A still life depicting lemons, a container of Jelly, a Butterfly and Vessels, on a shelf
June 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social
A look at the original work that inspired today's animation 🔍

These studies of a sleepy, restful hound, captured for a portrait of this dog, are by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, son of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo.
A page with six sketches of a dog in different positions
December 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
nguthrie.bsky.social
Large tureen in the form of a cabbage with small artichoke tureens (Strasbourg, 1750), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc
Naturalistic cabbage in pale green white brine, smaller artichoke-shaped tureen beside it Two artichoke tureens and the larger cabbage
December 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
rhwhite.bsky.social
A circa 1740 porcelain small mug with handle manufactured at Chantilly, decorated with painted flowers and bamboo in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style. Nicely done. Bought it from Bonhams, London on December 2nd and it actually shipped and arrived before Christmas. Miraculous.
Diameter: 4 1/4” (10.8 cm) with handle; height: 4 3/8” (11 cm). On the underside the Chantilly manufactory hunting horn in red with a retail label from Stockspring Antiques.
December 27, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by neil guthrie
drannaclark.bsky.social
Gold snuff box, 1767, with miniature views of Château de Chanteloup, gouache on vellum; commissioned by duc de Choiseul (1719-1785), statesman, Minister of Foreign Affairs to Louis XV & patron of arts; after 1764, he fell from favour & retired to his Château de Chanteloup, near Amboise.
Met Museum
The Chanteloup snuff box, 1767 Goldsmith: probably Pierre-François Delafons Miniaturist: attributed to Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe Met Museum New York The Chanteloup snuff box, 1767 Goldsmith: probably Pierre-François Delafons Miniaturist: attributed to Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe Met Museum New York
December 27, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Reposted by neil guthrie
chountisdefabbri.bsky.social
Thanks for following, glad to connect! Fan of all things history.
But mainly posting on eighteenth-century British political, imperial, and intellectual history, Edmund Burke, Whig political culture, and classical reception.
December 27, 2025 at 12:21 PM