#1700s

[boswelliana]

Holy shit I can’t seem to put down Rousseau’s Confessions???

Originally meant to better understand his philosophy to add context to Thomas Day’s History of Sandford and Merton, but omg—

[kafkasapartment]

Galleria Colonna, located inside the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, Italy. Commissioned in the mid-17th century by Cardinal Girolamo I Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. Hidden just out of frame on the steps leading down into this main hall is a cannonball fired by French forces in 1849, it has remained lodged exactly where it landed.

[househunting]

$795,000/3br/2.5 ba

Woodbridge, CT

Built in 1750

"From the moment you step inside, you'll be captivated by its whimsical character; starting with the once fully functional cement mixer that has been creatively repurposed as a fireplace with pellet stove." [househunting on substack] [househunting on instagram]

[diemelusine]

Portrait of the Hon. Frances Bard (c. 1646 - 1708) by Peter Lely. Private collection.

[drkingleer]

[artschoolglasses]

Walking Leopard, Italian, 18th Century

From the Met Museum

[the-marvelous-mystery]

Was playing around a bit with an Incorrect Quotes generator when I got this:

I think this gives a good insight into their dynamic, don't you?

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Pouf à la Belle Poule

Imagine spending hours having your hair built into a towering sculpture nearly three feet high.

As unbelievable as it sounds, fashionable women in Paris really did this in the late 1770s and 1780s.

One of the most famous examples was the "Pouf à la Belle Poule," a hairstyle inspired by a French naval victory during the American Revolutionary War.

After the French frigate named "Belle Poule" defeated a British warship in 1778, patriotic excitement swept through France.

High society women celebrated by wearing miniature model ships in their hair.

Not ship-shaped hairstyles.

Actual ships.

Hairdressers constructed elaborate frameworks using wire, padding, horsehair, ribbons, feathers, pearls, and powdered hair.

Then, they placed a detailed model of the "Belle Poule" sailing through artificial waves on top of the hairstyle.

The result looked less like a hairstyle and more like a floating political billboard.

And that was exactly the point.

In the court of Queen Marie Antoinette, fashion was not merely about beauty. It was a way to display wealth, status, opinions, current events, and even loyalty to the crown.

Hairstyles became so elaborate that women decorated them with gardens, birds, fruit, military scenes, and ships.

The pouf became a form of social media centuries before social media existed. If something important happened — a royal birth, a military victory, a scientific discovery — it might soon appear in someone's hair.

Critics were horrified. Satirists mocked the towering creations, and some complained that the hairstyles symbolized the excess and detachment of the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the Revolution.

Today, the "Pouf à la Belle Poule" remains one of the most extraordinary fashion trends in history, a reminder that sometimes the strangest fashions are not inventions of the modern world.

They already happened, and they happened in Paris.