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encyclopedia of the exquisite
encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com
10
An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights, musings on some of my favorite things, art, grande dames, gardens, cooking, literature, dandies, fads & fashion, and life's luxuries that don't cost much. By Jessica Kerwin Jenkins
#121988 in All

Speaking of the sea…

An illustration from Edward Lears "The Owl and the Pussycat," 1871. I’ve got one more maritime themed entry to share. All winter long we’ve been busy around building not one, no...

08 may 12

To See the Sea

An image from French artist Sophie Calles "Voir La Mer." Artist Sophie Calle is someone whom I hope I’ll have the chance to meet somehow before one of us is no longer. I mean, that ki...

08 may 12

Shelley at Sea

A sketch of Shelleys double-masted Don Juan and Byrons schooner Bolivar, part of an exhibition at the New York Public Library. I love a certain kind of macabre /fetishistic museum show, like “S...

04 may 12

Cheered Up

Horn players and drummers of the old Turkish military bands were the forerunners of modern marching bands like the avant-garde What Cheer Brigade. I haven’t had as much fun as I had at the What...

02 may 12

Paper, Scissors

Cut-book artwork by Alexander Korzer Robinson. How beautiful it is... I am swooning over Alexander Korzer Robinson’s artwork, featured in The Guardian. It’s like my heart is breaking. I l...

23 apr 12

Ce Moment

"Ce Moment," in lucite, by artist Lisa Benson. My great friend Lisa Benson (a New Zealand artist) gave me one of her recent works—a small transparent red lucite card, like a thick credit ca...

13 apr 12

The fun part

All the Encyclopedias so far... I didn’t realize how fun it would be to see Encyclopedia of the Exquisite printed in foreign languages. German. Dutch. Korean. Lithuanian. With complex and simpl...

13 apr 12

Casanova’s Worthy Subject

A page from Casanovas original manuscript, The Story of My Life, now on display at the Bibliotheque Nationale. I would just love to see Casanova’s handwritten memoirs, “The Story of My Li...

29 nov 11 1 person likes this

All Scrambled

Jacques Pépin demonstrates his controversial new omelette making technique in the New York Times. Master chef Jacques Pépin has changed breakfast around here, and has challenged Encyclopedia of the E...

02 nov 11

How Sweet It Is

The grand beekeeping tradition. All summer long I’d been meaning to write about how much I love beekeeping. We got a hive in July and I could sit and watch those little ladies dart in and out w...

28 sep 11

One-bite Wonder

What a taste sensation! One-bite blancmange... What could be so newsworthy as to break my non-blogging habit? Nothing other than my newest invention: one-bite blancmange drizzled with fresh raspberry...

21 jul 11

Sketches of sailing craft from Shelleys notebooks. It’s been too long! I just wanted to drop a line here on an article about Keats and Shelley meeting at Lake Geneva in the New York Times (See ...

30 may 11

The Lobster Quadrille

Anne-Marie Mallik as Alice in Wonderland in the outrageous 1966 BBC production. I do like Lewis Carroll, but I love director Jonathan Miller‘s 1966 film “Alice in Wonderland,” based...

06 may 11

Hot Cross Buns, the Sequel

Hot cross buns right out of the oven. Happy Easter! It’s that time of year. Last spring, when I started this blog, one of my first posts was about the tradition of baking Hot Cross Buns around ...

22 apr 11

Kumari of Kathmandu

The Kumaris temple in Kathamandu. She appeared in the top right-side window. The Kumari’s temple in Kathmandu, Nepal is one of the favorite places I’ve visited, probably because while I w...

14 apr 11

Botanical Beauties

One of Harvard Universitys glass flowers, a Devils bit with butterfly. How is it possible that I have yet to visit Harvard’s glass flowers? My husband has been trying to get me there for years....

05 apr 11

Idleness by the Numbers

The medieval Japanese scholar Kenko, idling away his hours at the inkstone. I’ve been too busy, so today I looked back at Essays in Idleness, by the medieval Japanese monk and scholar Yoshida K...

29 mar 11

World on a String

Amazing string gardens from Amsterdam, in the Japanese bonsai tradition. There may be snow on the ground here in Maine, but the sight of these gorgeous string-flower creations from Amsterdam is makin...

22 mar 11

Up, up and away

Ill be reading and dreaming for the next two weeks. See you in late March.... It’s true, my posts have slowed down a bit lately, as you may have noticed. But for good reason—I’m at work o...

06 mar 11

Between Waldorf and Astoria

The old Waldorf-Astoria hotel was the height of fashion at the turn of the century. (It stood on the site of the Empire State Building.) Yesterday I was reading about New York’s haughty hotel c...

06 mar 11

Bau, bau….

Venetians of the 18th century wearing bautas and morettas during Carnival. It’s nearly Mardi Gras already, so it’s high time that I gave a nod to the Venetian masquers of old, who eerily ...

26 feb 11

“The season of lists and callow hopefulness…”

The Williams Bon Chrétien pear, aka the Bartlett, one of my many garden catalog purchases for spring. The great editor and grande dame of New England gardening, Katharine S. White, gives her opinion ...

20 feb 11

Anna from Every Angle

The glorious Anna Held...with so many photos after the jump. Encyclopedia of the Exquisite’s entry on Milk Baths introduces the Ziegfeld sensation Anna Held, who was famously sued by a milk far...

17 feb 11

Love to Love

A lacy 19th century Valentine—notice the love birds. How sweet! “Good morrow! ’tis Saint Valentine’s Day All in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine&...

14 feb 11

Mmmmm Marmalade

Lovely handmade marmalade—batch 1 of 3. Phew... As I write this my kitchen is full to billowing with the most delightful steam, delightful because—for the second day in a row—I’m making a giant...

07 feb 11

A Visit to the Virtual Versailles

A virtual visit to the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, via Googles new Art Project. Did you ever fantasize that the watchman would forget about you and that somehow you’d get to stay on in the m...

02 feb 11

Round and Round

The Jardin de Luxembourgs carousel, with its beloved white elephant, at left. Every time I go to Paris’ Jardin de Luxembourg I have to make sure that it’s there—Rilke’s beloved elep...

30 jan 11

Toes Mustn’t Show

Do not emulate the brazen lady in this image who dares to lounge without a couvre-pieds! In 1818 the formidable French etiquette writer Madame de Genlis (1746-1830) reminded proper ladies that when l...

26 jan 11

Tip Top

Marlene Dietrich wears a top hat in "Morocco," 1931. Plenty of stylish types have worn top hats—an entry in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite—over the years. But did anyone ever wear a top hat ...

21 jan 11

The Field of the Cloth of Gold

The Field of the Cloth of Gold in full swing. (Click for a better look.) In one of those rare moments that brings together a handful of entries found in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Henry VIII of E...

16 jan 11

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