Lady Shalott on Facebook

The Facebook user Lady Shalott has collected some wonderful galleries of images past and present, as well as an album of cultural references to the Tennyson Lady.

My favorite album, however, is her gallery of images from Howard Pyle's illustrated edition of The Lady of Shalott. I had seen a few images before, but didn't put two and two together and realize that this was a full illustrated book. Apparently it was, according to a listing on Amazon, "his first commission to completely illustrate a book. This title and "Yankee Doodle" were worked simultaneously by Pyle: both were early American experiments in color printing for children's books, an attempt to emulate the excellent flat color printing achieved by the great English color printer, Edmund Evans [see: PITZ p52]. Pitz calls Pyle's work in this florid Art Nouveau style, "an interesting period piece with more vigor and invention than most British illustration of the time."

It's also very expensive, sadly.

Beautiful. And fascinating. Go check out her album!

Lady of Shalott Beaded Purse

Thanks to Jen Parrish for directing me to this gorgeous beaded purse / bag made by Winebrenner Gallery

The strap reads
"When the moon was overhead, came two
young lovers lately wed: ‘I am half sick of shadows’,
said The Lady of Shalott"

Lovely!

An interesting bathtub from Puritan Values

A favorite website of mine is British antique shop, Puritan Values Ltd. They have page after page of gorgeous Arts & Crafts furniture and items. It's truly like an endless stream of pretty.

Last night I discovered a page with pictures of a few buildings the owner has, with rooms furnished beautifully from his stock (and most things are sellable). The rooms are available for let, as well.

In one of the bathrooms, my attention was distracted by this tub:





The owner says it is "an original Victorian bath I had re-enamelled & decorated with Pre-Raphaelite pictures, and then specially coated to resist water. If you might be interested in an original bath restored to look like this, or decorated to your own designs, then do email me with your requirements."

I'm of two minds on this tub. On the one hand, in the right sort of slightly quirky Pre-Raphaelite themed bathroom, it could be divine. But I have a soft spot for Victorian pedestal tubs, and part of me would want to just leave it alone.

What do you think of it?

Buy a Victorian Romantic Painting from Michael Jackson!

I recently perused the catalogs from Julien's auctions of Michael Jackson's personal belongings from Neverland Ranch, and was surprised and fascinated to discover that he owned The Death of Cleopatra by Jean Andre Rixens.

I'll be curious to know how much it goes for! The catalogs are fascinating to look through regardless.

Tess Avelland Benefit Auctions Still Ongoing!

There are some beautiful items up for bid!

Jen Parrish of Parrish Relics has offered this beautiful Evelyn DeMorgan necklace:

Cinemafantasy has this lot of beautiful printed items:

Sihaya Designs offers this beautiful bracelet, Les Dames Mystérieuses:

Merleart has this beautiful original artwork of Medieval Lady With Spring Flowers, ending tomorrow at midnight:

And finally, LindenSidhe has a pair of her gorgeous handmade costume antlers, up for bid with an autographed copy of the film Brother and Sister, by Lisa Stock of In By The Eye Productions, in which her antlers were featured. This auction ends tonight at midnight, so hop on it!:

Thieving Strawberry Thief

On a recent Google image search, I found several delightfully amusing examples of reuse of the William Morris Strawberry Thief pattern for other items.

For instance, how about on your Nikes?


Imagine this mirror in a room with Strawberry Thief wallpaper. Wow!


Or on a wallet?

Morris' designs are truly timeless!

Tess Avelland Benefit Auctions

The benefit LJ group for Tess Avelland (the owner of Midnight Muse, and the most brilliant woman I know when it comes to knowledge and identification of Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic art) is holding auctions right now to try to raise money for her medical expenses. Please visit the group at

http://community.livejournal.com/weloveyoutess/

and bid on items (by placing your bid in the comments) to help support one of the most awesome people in the universe! There are some truly wonderful items there from a variety of talented people.

Hopefully auctions will be held at least 1 week a month, and I'll notify the blog of each set.