



Nearly forgotten but glorious art, envisionings and historical oddments from the back corners of the internet
George Smith was Upholder Extraordinary to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Several of these show the furniture with what we would call slipcovers making me think that they are either of rooms in a summer house or rooms with the upholstered furniture in slipcovers for the summer.
Oh to be here.
Farm life and that fun what with the fields to gaze out on in their beautiful shades of green and yellow when the crops came in. Vegetable garden to hoe and a veritable ribbon of tomatoes to can until the stove feels red hot and the kitchen feels hotter with the flies dancing on the other side of the screen door. Ones in the store in pretty cans with pictures but the other ladies carrying on. Something about a real wife growing her own food and not being lazy and buying it canned by someone else somewhere else with the stems and things living someplace else in their giant mound.
A writer turned into a gentleman wheat farmer and that not . . . . just not. . . Skies that go on forever and the children to tend and knit sweaters for while they grow like weeds. But not normal things for them to do. Jumping from haylofts and walking into town instead of taking the streetcar into town to window shop and have lunch at the lunch counter in the big café in the train station.
A grand life but a photograph falling out of the back of the album that fell behind the bookcase and a dreamtime back. Wanting to be a model and the neighbor lady knowing someone at Neiman Marcus. Getting a job wearing evening gowns for rich ladies to see while their granddaughters sit on little gold chairs on either side with eyes big as saucers. Not a forever thing for sure but a dream lived for real instead of in your head . . .
Antoine Ignace Melling was trained in both architecture and painting. At the age of 19, he went to Constantinople as part of the Russian Ambassador’s retinue. After successfully completing several commissions for Hatice Sultan, the sister of Selim III, which included the renovation of her palace at Ortakeï. Melling was employed as the Sultan’s architect in 1795. His position as royal architect gave him a privileged opportunity to observe the Ottoman court. (The description is a reworking of the description on the website of Donald A. Heald Rare Brooks).
David Roberts first sketched in his journals “on the spot” the vaious subjects which, on returning to London, he transcribed into finished paintings and watercolors. These then formed the basis of the lithographs drawn and printed by Louis Haghe. It is interesting to note that in some instances Roberts’ original drawings were twice or three times the size of the published print, which indicated the skill of Haghe and his assistants in transferring Roberts’ designs onto lithographic stones.