Organic / Erotic (In the Most Refined Way)

March 25, 2014, 3:38 pm

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As long as I can remember, I've dreamed of designing clothes. Oh, the sketching and plotting that went on! But there was never any sewing. Many, many failed attempts and the destruction of mom's sewing machine (could they make it any easier to forget to put down that presser foot?), but not even a pillowcase emerged. It was a curse of couture visions and Cro-Magnon handiwork.

So, it is with miracles and so much joy that the wonderful ladies at kumi kookoon offered Porter and me the chance to design (not sew) a capsule collection of lounge wear and bedding using their incredible, fine silks. 

The moment we got word that the project was a go, I set out to Sprout Home to pick up exotic flowers to inspire a print and came out with two: Papaver somniferum (poppy pods), the key note in lemony cakes, opium, heroin and an allegorical poem about the fallen boys of WWI, and Tulipa gesneriana dracontia (super parrot tulip), the mutated, jolie laide cousin of the classic White Dream. Then, I grabbed my watercolors and went to work. When the paintings were done I started manipulating the pods and tulips into patterns until I found one that simultaneously evoked an art deco Chinoiserie trellis - and accented and traced all the best zones on a woman's body. What were the chances? We designed the line around the print - and added in a few clean, classic crisp whites for purists. kumi kookoon then took the print and also made it into bedding - luxurious duvets, shams and throws. 

The entire Hovey Design + kumi kookoon capsule collection will be available exclusively through ABC Carpet & Home in New York in the coming weeks - and online at www.kumikookoon.com

Here's a first look at all the clothing.

  

Many thanks to the stunningly beautiful Natasha David for slipping into the silks...and to Porter for capturing the essence of the capsule collection so perfectly in these photos. 

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100 Years of Disease, Illustrated (by Great Grandma)

August 19, 2014, 1:01 pm

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More exciting evidence and details of our great grandmother's medical illustration career have come to light. As part of their efforts to plan the current exhibition celebrating the first hundred years of the Cleveland Clinic's Medical Art and Photography Department, the curators reached out to me to see if we had any of her original drawings from the years when she worked with George Crile, Sr., one of the clinic's co-founders. After he sent her off to Johns Hopkins to study under Max Bröedel, widely considered the father of modern medical illustration in the U.S., Dr. Crile used a bunch of her drawings to illustrate his 1914 book, Anoci-association. We don't have the originals of these, but Google has the full text and plates. Oh, how I love the internet. 

Our dad's cousin, Christine Lamson, brought her collection of great-grandma's originals to the art department at Johns Hopkins prior to their centennial celebration a few years ago. Based on their analysis of Armenouhie's early work, they estimate that she studied with Bröedel around 1908 or 1909, prior to the school's official start. Basically, she lived out Steven Soderberg's The Knick, but with pencils instead of scalpels.

If you're in the Cleveland area, the Medical Art & Photography Centennial Art Exhibit is up through Sept. 4, 2014 at the Cleveland Clinic Art Exhibition Area – between Q and G buildings. 

Adventures North

August 19, 2014, 3:13 pm

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The best summers must be the ones that feel like fall - and we're still having one. New York has been magical, but the escapes were even better. A few weeks back, Porter and I grabbed Victor de Matha, Martyna Gawrych and Andy Neiman and headed north to run wild through drizzly Blithewood Garden... 

...and escape to an old converted general store in Rupert, VT... 

...with one of the world's greatest backyards...

that even has a halfpipe (luckiest kids in the world live here...their dad is the man behind PowderJet Snowboards).

There are loads of covered bridges around town.

And bales of hay in the back.

Dorset is right next door and fancy. Even the trees keep in line there. 

And they have flowers instead of grass, it seems.

Back in Rupert, this was our view out the front at dusk where we sat while...

Porter made the feast. 

On the way home, we headed to Lake George where I drove a boat.

And Port gawked at the spectacular perfection.

Adventures East

August 19, 2014, 6:33 pm

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On a rare not-just-out-early-but-totally-off-summer Friday, I task mastered and rallied the troops for a 7 a.m. departure east. Our toes were in the South Hampton sand by a sane person's weekend breakfast time and we were eating hot lobster rolls in Amagansett by noon. Porter and Victor ran Montauk's Walking Dunes like characters in a Nicholas Sparks flick, while I put up my hood and pretended to be in a Bergman.

We popped into Jackson Pollock's splatter room...

And had dinner at Ruschmeyer's. We hit the road by 9:00 and we're home by a nice appropriate bedtime without any traffic.

 

(Lee Krasner's touches at the East Hampton house she and Pollock shared).

Porter enters the studio.

(I really love a great post-apocalyptic plant...and that hoodie).

Well Hung | A Virtual Tour Through Scandinavia's Museums

August 20, 2014, 6:16 pm

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This Nordic gallery tour oddly limits the region's palette to the colors of all their flags, which, happen to be perfect and teach us valuable lessons: Never again should a baby blue exist in the absence of crimson or yellow, nor a pink without a dark, cold hue. Perhaps it's because we live without that northern light, but our reds, whites and blues just don't look like this.

Icelandic Gerfalcon(1759)

Unknown Artist

The Royal Armoury,Sweden

King Christian X andQueen Alexandrine of Denmark (1915)

Michael Ancher

Skagens Museum

 

Portrait of thelandscape painter Frederik Sødring (1832)

Christen Købke

The HirschsprungCollection, Denmark

Oscar 1, King ofSweden and Norway 1844-1859

Erik (Wahlberg) Wahlbergson

The Royal Armoury, Sweden

Trompe L’oeil (1737)

Carl Hofverberg

The Royal Armoury, Sweden

Mother and Child(1883)

Christian Krohg

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway

Self Portrait (1925)

Agda Holst

Malmö Konstmuseum

A Woman’s Arm (Uten år)

Adolph Tidemand

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway

Mocc Bespoke

August 24, 2014, 7:03 pm

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Labor Day hasn't even officially ended summer yet,  so it seems almost ridiculous to be thinking about Christmas presents, but if you like to give truly special, customized gifts lead times can be heart breaking even for the most diligent early shopper/orderer if inspiration hits too late into the fall. These incredible custom moccasins from Sunbright Originals only take about three weeks (but you will procrastinate). You can choose style, sole, up to seven different bead colors and dictate the precise beading pattern based on a drawing or photo. They run about $450 a pair but these are more like works of art to be passed down than house slippers.   

Spoilt Rotten

August 29, 2014, 4:46 am

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Bad behavior sure looks better in white tie and tails. And the spelling of "spoiled" sure looks better with a "t" (it's like snippy throwing digs at snooty!). 

Seriously, though, it's the screen adaptation of Laura Wade's play, Posh, directed by Lone Scherfig, the man behind An Education. 

For other additional fun visual feasts, check out David Fincher's new ads for GAP. That's a step back to the glory Khakis Swing days of Mickey Drexler. Now, what to do about Banana Republic...

Wood on the Water | A Peek Inside the Cutts & Case Workshop

September 1, 2014, 8:44 pm

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Years ago, when visiting our Aunt Rita and Uncle Al in Oxford, Maryland we all went on a post-dinner stroll through town and passed a lifetime's worth of maritime fantasies - big ones - encased in a glass box. Shells in the sky, full vessels on the ground, sails, perched. It was Cutts & Case, one of the few remaining wooden boat builders in the Mid-Atlantic, and it was closed for the night. We felt like humans looking into an aquarium...of beautiful boats.

So, when we were there over the weekend, we went early and with a more adventurous spirit. On our sneak through the boatyard behind the glassed-in museum, we met photographer Fred Stocker (a close friend of Eddie Cutts the owner and son of Edmund Cutts, the founder), who offered to let us inside... 

Here's a glimpse of the workshops with nearly magical light...(the boats, in all their glory are in the next post).

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Wood on the Water (Part 2) | Cutts & Case Museum and Shipyard

September 1, 2014, 9:18 pm

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While these ladies looked like beauties from outside, the up-close view of the Cutts & Case collection blew those distance perceptions away. Many of these grande dames are still works-in-progress like the one above that clearly shows the Cutts Method where a double planked skin is laid over a simple set of molds.

Before he died, Edmond Cutts' dream was to finish this enormous "commuter," the kind of boat wealthy businessmen might have taken from the Hamptons to Wall Street while enjoying a morning cocktail. After talking with Fred Stocker, our sailing, photographing, shipyard guide, we all decided that a Kickstarter campaign to get this baby finished and in the water is in order (more on that to come!). Look at that hull (and the baby boat for size context...and the shots below)! 

Foto belonged to Stanley Rosenfeld, part of what might be the best family of boating and nautical photographers to ever set sail. 

 

Inside Foto.

Cutts' Commuter, a more accurate scale.

Cutts' Commuter, still in dream form.

Edmund Cutts also loved motorcycles.

This was in one of the ships in the yard. I want to rope all my banisters with an extra spiral (even the gear shifts have it!)

A detail from the shipyard.

Hare on the Stair (The Best Museum Show Promotional Concept Borne Since the Birth of Instagram)

September 2, 2014, 8:29 pm

≫ Next: 48 Hours in Vienna (A Pared Down Version of My Actually Totally Unrealistic Plan - Day 1)

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Over the summer, the tiny, meticulous "Young Hare" that Albrecht Dürer sketched up in 1502 hung prominently inside Vienna's Albertina Museum...while a gargantuan facsimile greeted visitors on the stairs. The museum sits inside one of Wein's many Hapsburg palaces (this one having been built in 1744 for Count Emanuel Teles Silva-Tarouca, then gifted, redecorated, rehauled, redecorated, gifted, bombed and recently rehauled). The bunny was the cornerstone of the "Dürer, Michelangelo, Rubens" show, which went down in June, but the bunny, remains alive in wildly detailed HD as part of the Google Art Project/Cultural Institute (yes, I'm obsessed).

While not all museums have stairs designed to elevate Hapsburg princes, why don't more do this?

I'm heading to Vienna in a couple weeks and will have the chance to see Miró and Katz, but no bunnies. 

(The top photo is a still from Cast Your Art's video - in German - about the show and the one below is from morganchele's flickr). Merisi's Vienna for Beginners blog has even better shots here.

48 Hours in Vienna (A Pared Down Version of My Actually Totally Unrealistic Plan - Day 1)

September 8, 2014, 3:28 pm

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After a few hops to Europe in college and my early 20s, I made a pact with myself that I would never apply any pressure to see more than a single museum and do one touristy thing in each locale. I spend my hours of Brooklyn freedom sipping wine in cafes with friends and scrounging through flea markets and wonderful little shops. So, when I travel, I shall do just that, only in completely new flea markets, cafes and shops, I swore to myself. It's worked perfectly for a decade and a half. 

Until now, when I've become a Type A planning monster. My friend Maggie and I head to Vienna for what is actually about 48 months' worth of activities that we'll have to pack into 48 hours if you are to believe my map (has roughly 100 entries). We'll get to about 1/10th of that, but to help calm the old brain, here's a pared down version of some some of the must-do highlights featuring images borrowed from all across the internet: 

Arrive early Saturday and drop off bags in the beautiful loft with herringbone floors I've rented in Neubau, Vienna's 7th district. Obtain fuel at the ZÅMM Coffee + Art Collective down the street (more on that here!).

(Kirchengasse 35) From there, head to the weekly flea Naschmarkt flea and pop into Cafe Dreschler for a late lunch. 

(Cafe Dreschler, Linke Wienzeile 22, Wein 1060)

Pop down the road to Joseph Maria Olbrich's 1897 Viennese Art Nouveau architectural masterpiece, the Secession Building, which houses Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze (top photo) and lots of other modern and contemporary art.

(Vienna Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, A-1010 Wien)

Head back down the Gumpendorferstraße to hit the Saint Charles Apotheke (above) and Cosmothcary (below) 

Grab a light dinner and drinks at Finkh (Esterhazygasse 12, 1060)

. . . 

For more shopping tips, check out Shopikon's guides. They're damned good. 

Also...this might even be manageable.

48 Hours in Vienna (Day 2)

September 8, 2014, 9:49 pm

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On day two, we'll head to museum and garden territory with many of the shops closed.

Perhaps we'll do breakfast at the Meierei em Stadpark (the photo above is from this) or Jospeh Bakery at Landstraßer Hauptstraße 4, 1030 Wien (below).

And then take coffees for a walk through the Belvedere Palace Gardens.

And then head to Europe's oldest shoe maker, Rudolf Scheer & Söhne, to gawk at the beauty (or just click here to see Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek's beautiful photos of the operations for Monocle Magazine like the one above). NOTE: I bet anything they're closed on Sunday. This might have to wait for Monday morning.

(Bräunerstraße 4, Vienna, Austria)

And grab a snack at at Palmenhaus (Burggarten 1)...before we head to Porter's favorite museum in the world (thus far), MuMOK. 

 

Daniel Spoerri's Der General, 1962, part of the MuMOK collection at Museumsplatz 1. The gift shop there is also incredible looking.

Followed by cocktails at Loos American Bar on Kärntner Durchgang (photo from Vanity Fair).

 

 Followed by wiener schnitzel at Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Oper at Walfischgasse 5.

Judging Nations by Their Fonts

September 10, 2014, 5:36 am

≫ Next: Cars, Fueling Excuses for Accessories Shopping for Generations

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Perhaps instead of giving us the current respective horrifying/mind-boggling, embarrassing/wild political situations, Russia and France could just turn their energies back to...fonts. Both are so great at fonts, fonts that define their cultures AND actually bring joy to people with eyes all over the world. Pierre Bergé's October 9 Literature auction lets us celebrate those fonts (of course, many of which emerged as a response to other horrifying and mind-boggling political situations, but great-looking, still).

Lot 225 | €600-800 | Litterature Et Avant-Gardes Russes | SCHKLOVSKII Viktor | Moscow, Berlin | Gelikon | 1923

Original edition of these letters to Elsa Triolet.

 Lot 311 | €500-600 | SACHS Maurice | Words (Original notes and sketches)

List of words and definitions related to botany or concerning precious words. This set was offered to the previous owner by the antiquarian Madeleine Castaing, mistress of the painter Soutine, in May, 1975.

Lot 271 | €1500-1800 | Henri Cartier-Bresson | Paris | Verve | 1952.

Considered one of the finest photography books with 370 x 273 mm boards illustrated by Henri Matisse. First edition illustrated by 126 photographs, taken by Pierre Gassman, reproduced in full pages. Blurb Henri Cartier-Bresson . First work done by the photographer Tériade under a cover illustrated by Matisse. Beautiful specimen, despite back very slightly browned.

Lot 95 | CHAVAL | €150-200 | Vive Gutenberg | Paris | Laffont | 1956 | First edition

Lot 18 | Antonin Artaud | €150-200 | Au pays des Tarahumaras (In the land of Tarahumara) | Paris | Fountain, 1945 | First Edition.

No. 240 of 700 copies on vellum. Includes his “Mexican texts” of lectures at the University of Mexico, including some details on the rite of peyote, and letters, including one from 1937 to Jean Paulhan.

Lot 277 | €400-500 | Nus (Naked) | Daniel Masclet | 1933

First edition of this album from the first "International Exhibition of Photographic Nude with images by Man Ray, George Platt Lynes, Moholy-Nagy, Pierre Boucher, Frantisek Drtikol and Laure Albin-Guillot.

Lot 226 | €400-500 | Literature And Russian Avant-Guard | Moscow-Berlin | Gelikon | 1922

First Edition with cover illustrated by Pavel Tchelichshev

Cars, Fueling Excuses for Accessories Shopping for Generations

September 11, 2014, 8:51 am

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This weekend hundreds of Brits will throw on their best Brideshead-looking kit and head to see the world's most beautiful sports cars race at the annual Goodwood Revival. To coincide with the event, Bonhams will be auctioning off loads of autos (see the next post) and the accessories everyone would need to make them complete. Here are a few of my favorites:

Lot 130† | A Veteran Leather Cased Picnic Set For Four Persons, by Drew & Sons, £1,500 - 2,000 ($2,400-3,200)

Lot 101† | A Leather-Cased Travelling Drinks Flask For Two Persons, Circa 1909,

£500 – 700 ($810-1,100)

Lot 110† | An Edwardian Leather-Cased Set Of Bartholomew's Road Maps For Scotland, Circa 1905, £800 - 1,200 ($1,300-1,900)

Lot 138† | A Leather-Cased Cocktail Set For Six Persons, By James Dixon & Sons, Circa 1910, £3,000 - 4,000 ($4,800-6,500)

Lot 96 | A Herbert Johnson Racing Helmet, Formerly The Property Of 'Bob' Roberts Obe,

£700 – 900 ($1,100-1,500)

Lot 122 | A Hermes Suitcase, Circa 1930, £1,200 - 1,400 ($1,900 - 2,300)

Lot 94 | A Twin-Bladed Wooden Propeller, Circa 1917, £600 – 800 ($970-1,300)

 

 

Lot 48 | A Collection of 17 Original Ferrari Yearbooks, £3,800 - 4,500 (US$ 6,100 - 7,300)

Lot 114 | Louis Vuitton Steamer Bag, Circa 1960, £1,000 - 1,200 ($1,600-1,900)

Lot 107 | A Moynat Suitcase, Circa 1910, £600 – 800 ($970-1,300)

Beautiful British Steals

September 12, 2014, 9:01 am

≫ Next: Das Wiener Whrilwind Pt. 1 | Naturhistorisches Museum

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Bonhams and the other auction houses usually arrange their lots to create suspense in the actual auctions, the beautiful-yet-affordable climbing to the beautiful and wildly astronomical. But psychologically, when scrolling through by your lonesome, shouldn't they start with the dreams and wind us all down to reality? Where impulsively dropping $250,000 for single seat 1935 MG Magnette at the Goodwood Revival auction could propel one's spouse to start divorce proceedings, that $2,000 Hermes suitcase could launch a thousand conversations about "bargain" shopping. Hell, even the 1951 Jag XK120 comparatively seems like a steal at $100,000...and the hubby could actually come along for the ride. Here is a selection of wallet killers that have easily birthed thousands of automobile fantasies.

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Lot 226

1951 Jaguar XK120 Alloy-bodied Roadster

Registration no. XKJ 470 Chassis no. 671751 Engine no. E-5393-8

£60,000 - 70,000

US$ 97,000 - 110,000

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Lot 305

1956 Aston Martin DB2/4 3.0-Litre Sports Saloon

Registration no. SLC 611 Chassis no. LML 933 Engine no. VB6J 62

£140,000 - 160,000

US$ 230,000 - 260,000

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Lot 244

1967/1988 Jaguar XKSS 3.8-Litre Replica

Registration no. XNF 435 Chassis no. 1E50912 / Body Number: LB4575-9

£225,000 - 275,000

US$ 370,000 - 450,000

 

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Das Wiener Whrilwind Pt. 1 | Naturhistorisches Museum

September 17, 2014, 9:52 pm

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Naturalism must've shaken its tail feather the right way at herringbone floors, because those two came together and created a helluva creature. Here's a peek inside the Natural History Museum, the first look back at my weekend in Wien where Maggie and I managed to walk over 30 miles through gardens, past palaces, under 4,567 canopies, into bars (well, just the Loos Bar, twice) and even a couple restaurants. It was wonderful - and I have to say - the perfect amount of time.*   

*I'd absolutely spend more time there. Loads. But the long European weekend might be one of life's great pleasures.**

**If you have a direct flight.

Breaking Up? Hard to Do.

September 18, 2014, 4:02 am

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What if William Wallace got wind of the potential revolution blowing across the Highlands today? There are no spears, no blood...and no television commentators scribbling exit poll results on white boards. I cannot even imagine what the Scottish and British people are doing to calm themselves during this media blackout before the results of the referendum are announced tomorrow morning. 

Our ridiculous American election coverage at least doles out the bad (or good) news in doses so we can go to bed generally accepting of our fate (unless there is a chad crisis). This is like (at best) waiting for Santa or (at worst), waiting for the jury to come back. Either way, it's historically mind boggling. 

Beyond the hugely important economic issues associated with potential independence, I have three questions: 

(1) Does Scotland Yard get rebranded?

(2) What happens to all the Scots working for MI-6?

(3) How will the Scots watch BBC programming? Illegal downloads, months late, through licensing arrangements?


If you need something to keep you busy before the news breaks, take a stroll through British Pathe's old Scottish news (reels), all collected here. 

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9/19 Update (for history, since this all seems completely out of date now) - No separation this time. All information above is a moot point. But I do still have those questions.

* * * 

Above we have Col. Alastair Ronaldson Macdonell of Glengarry painted by Sir Henry Raeburn in 1812. Macdonell, supposedly the model for his friend Sir Walter Scott's character Fergus McIvor in Waverley, was a fervently proud Scotsman who went a bit far in his national pride. He evicted his tenants so he could clear his lands for sheep farming and started societies for only those with the purest Scottish blood. All that said, he did wear some nice tartans and would likely have some very serious opinions about what's happening today. 

Das Wiener Whirlwind Pt. 2 | Wäscheflott Bespoke PJs and Shirts

September 19, 2014, 4:55 am

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Wäscheflott has been making custom shirts and PJs in Vienna since Rudolf Stekl founded the company in 1948. Today, his granddaughter Beatrix passionately runs the business that still makes all its wares from elegant Italian fabrics, to measure, right in Vienna (they do sell boxer shorts off the rack for about €30). Beatrix was there when Maggie and I popped into the shop and she graciously told us the story of the brand. If you're ever there for an extended stay, treat yourself to some of these. The photos don't do them justice.

They'll one of the fixtures at Vienna Design Week, which runs from September 26 to October 5. 

The shop is located in the ring (the city center) at Augustinerstraße 7, 1010 Wien, Austria.

Das Wiener Whirlwind Pt. 3 | The "That Poor Gardener" Series + Some Art

September 21, 2014, 8:55 pm

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At the Schönbrunn Palace grounds - and even the Palmenhaus - things aren't always perfect. See the downright punk bush second from the left (someone's in trouble). 

There are roughly 1,345,456 canopies and meticulously trimmed paths to walk under and through in this town. Of them all, this was the most severe, literally like green razors slicing the sky (and we saw the sharpening happen).

A shocking lack of Hapsburgian symmetry occurred on the lawn. Someone must've left their ball bushes out.

This modest structure sits atop a massive hill that overlooks the entire city, the palace and the main gardens.

The view of the palace from a top the hill.

A few of the paintings at the wonderful MuMOK seemed perfectly placed amidst the nature. Richard Gerstl | Familie Schönberg | 1907

Across the Danube canal in the second, more residential ward sits Augarten, home to the Vienna Boys Choir, the Augarten Porcelain Factory (seen past the trees), and a series of ominous wrong-side-of-WWII flak tours.

Of all the opulent architecture in Vienna, the porcelain factory was my favorite. 

The hollyhocks were remarkable.

Paul Delvaux | L'école des savants | 1958

One of the flak towers overlooking happy, playing children and cyclists.

Otto Mueller | Mädchen im Wald (Girl in the Wood) | 1920

The Volksgarten

Travels North (Slightly More West Than Normal), Pawn Shop Miracles and Darwin

September 24, 2014, 8:31 pm

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For some reason, Porter and her college friends spent four years across the Hudson from Kingston, NY (and even made numerous trips across the Rhinecliff-Kingston Bridge for Target runs and photo supplies), but never really managed to investigate the town...which pre-dates the Revolution and today is loaded with great little antiques shops and one great, still somewhat affordable heap of architectural salvage glory (Jean, it's everything you said and more). It's hardly a secret destination, but compared to the little towns East of the river (which I adore), this seems more local and less touched by the city folk and weekenders. After almost a decade of trips north, she and I finally popped up there last weekend and found a trove of treasures. 

For months, I've been fantasizing about finding a thick gold band to create a stack on my non-wedding ring finger. While this is the least difficult kind of ring to find, I passively thought about the kind of people who wear thick gold rings (happily married men!) and those who don't want those thick gold rings (divorced men!) and the kinds of places where those men might go to get rid of the thick gold rings (pawn shops!). Well, there was Sam's Swap Shop on North Fourth Street where many a man has decided to part with his shot guns, banjos...and, bingo, wedding bands. I went in like a laser and pointed at one of the hundreds propped into the trays. The owner, the granddaugher of the founder (Sam, I suppose), brought it out and that puppy slipped on perfectly like that glass slipper on Cinderella's impossibly small foot (this, I guess, is not normal in the Kingston, NY pawn shop world). In the days since, Porter has been horrified at the fact that I'm currently sporting and ogling a symbol of a destroyed relationship (at best, maybe?) or (at worst, maybe) a piece of jewelry plucked off of a corpse. But I love it and my joy will surely erase all those bad things.   

Across the street from Sam's Swap sits Half Moon Books, a great little used book shop where we both scored stacks of out-of-print gems, including The Book of Cowboys by Holling C. Holling (a man I should've plopped a gold band onto in another life), Louise Fatie's Happy Lion in Africa, which ranks up there with Curious George and Babar, and Alan Moorehead's beautiful look back at Darwin and the Beagle. Critics panned the poor book for being a lightweight of new Darwinian insights, but no one could deny its beauty. It's filled with over 50 prints and illustrations completed around the time of Darwin's voyage. Here are details of a few. You can buy it for mere pennies online.

The end papers.