In the sixteenth century, wheellock pistols sometimes were combined with swords, knives, axes, maces, spears, and even crossbows, which could be used in the event the pistol misfired. Usually clumsy and impractical, combined weapons were nevertheless highly prized curiosities. On this example, the heavy, cleaverlike blade is etched with a calendar and the decorator's name.
The scene on this copper plate is usually thought to represent Aristotle being ridden by Phyllis, but it may be more accurately identified as a general depiction of a woman’s tyrannical rule.
Spinning has throughout the ages been considered the work of women. By the time this plate was made, a relatively sophisticated type of spinning wheel had been developed, as seen in an illustration in Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch of about 1480. The object to the left in this plate represents the method of spinning wool by hand from a fixed distaff (which had the advantage of leaving both hands free, one to rotate the spindle and the other to draw out the fibers). The yarn spun onto the spindle, however, could not be slipped off but had to be wound off with a cross-reel such as that held by the men on this plate. The fact that a man could be reduced to hank winding would alone have been quite amusing to Medieval viewers, but that he has been reduced to a most embarrassing position, and is in the process of being beaten - possibly for not correctly performing even this simplest of tasks - can only be viewed as a domestic satire, quite different from the story of Phyllis and Aristotle. The motif of the wife astride her husband, however, has probably derived from it. A plate of this size and depth could have served either as a charge on which to carry large portions of food to the table, or as a basin into which was could be poured.
About AD 200 - 300, Silver and iron
Rock crystal, perhaps termed menu hedej, in the hieroglyphs was a stone much coveted for amulets and miniature, deluxe vases but its use, because of its rarity, was very restricted.
New Kingdom, Ramesside period, IX - XX Dynasty , 1295 - 1069 BC.
Dated to the early 1500s, the globe was likely crafted in Florence, Italy, from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs. It is engraved with then-new and vague details about the Americas garnered from European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. It is also decorated with monsters, intertwining waves and even a shipwrecked sailor. He determined that the grapefruit-sized globe was made around 1504 and was likely used to cast the famous copper Lenox globe housed at the New York Public Library, which, until now, had been thought to be the oldest globe to show the Americas, dated to 1510. Of the 71 names on the ostrich egg globe, just seven lie in the Western Hemisphere. North America, which is represented as a group of scattered islands, is totally unlabeled and the globe includes one sentence: "HIC SVNT DRACONES," or "Here are the Dragons," according to the Washington Map Society. The only three names shown in South America are Mundus Novus ("New World"), Terra de Brazil, and Terra Sanctae Crucis ("Land of the Holy Cross"). Though the maker of the globe remains unknown, researches suspects the globe may be linked to the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci.
BATTLE OF THE FROGS
Two stuffed frogs with "human attitudes" play out a miniature battle in a work by a Parisian taxidermist, Mantin. This childless bachelor who died at 54 was very afraid to be forgotten. By giving his house to the town of Moulins, he wanted to stay in their memories. After 100 years his house was finally opened and scientists found one of the funniest miniatures scenes ever.
Bronze statuette possibly of the Roman fertility god Priapus, made in two parts (shown here in assembled and disassembled forms). This statuette has been dated to the late 1st century C.E. It was found in Rivery, in Picardy, France in 1771 and is the oldest Gallo-Roman object in the collection of the Museum of Picardy. This figurine represents the deity clothed in a "cuculus", a Gallic coat with hood, and may be an example of the Genii cucullati. This upper section is detachable and conceals a phallus.
Early telescopes were primarily used for making Earth-bound observations, such as surveying and military tactics. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was part of a small group of astronomers who turned telescopes towards the heavens. After hearing about the "Danish perspective glass" in 1609, Galileo constructed his own telescope. He subsequently demonstrated the telescope in Venice. His demonstration of the telescope earned him a lifetime lectureship.
After his initial success, Galileo focused on refining the instrument. The initial telescope he created (and the Dutch ones it was based on) magnified objects three diameters. That is, it made things look three times larger than they did with the naked eye. Through refining the design of the telescope he developed an instrument that could magnify eight times, and eventually thirty times.
Galileo also produced this extremely famous set of six watercolours of the Moon in its various phases "from life", as he observed the Earth's satellite through a telescope in the autumn of 1609. They represent the first realistic depiction of the Moon in history.
The armour seems to have been in England from the mid-1620s, after which it was crudely altered, most obviously with the enlargement of the face opening of the helmet. Between about 1640 and 1688 Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, Charles II, Cosimo de Medici, and General George Monck, Duke of Albermarle were each painted in this armour. By the later 18th century it belonged to Board of Ordnance armourer John Cooper, who apparently lent it for exhibition at the Tower of London. It was presented there as the armour of Charles II in the display of mounted figures known as the 'Line of Kings', and was later displayed as that of Edward VI and then Charles I.
No such hoard has even been unearthed in northern Italy before. The gold is in an excellent state of preservation making the images and engravings on the coins and thus the engraver, year and sponsor relatively easily to discern. There are an estimated 300 coins in the amphora (which is itself of major significance because it is of a previously unknown design). Whoever placed the jar in that place “buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it,” . The find site is just a few feet away from the forum of the Roman city where merchants, banks and temples would have done brisk cash business. It was also an elite residential neighborhood, however, so it’s not out of the question that a private individual rolled up his own wealth.
The worked daggers of flint appeared at the end of the Neolithic era. On the European continent the Early Bronze Age began and the dagger became the man’s most important status symbol. This development also occurred in Denmark, where the daggers were made of flint, but modelled on the European metal daggers. The flintworkers’ knapping technique permitted them to make elegant daggers with thin blades. Their technical skill culminated at the end of the Dagger Period, for example with the Hindsgavl Dagger. This is precisely where we see the competition with the imported metal daggers at its strongest. After this the heyday of the flintworker was over. Although bronze became very popular, the production of beautiful flint daggers continued far into the Bronze Age.
It therefore stands to reason that armor was subject to the same trends in fashion as textile clothing. Indeed, the stylistic changes of textile fashions are closely mirrored in armor. For example, in the late fifteenth century, Burgundian noblemen wore long pointed shoes and tight-fitting clothes that emphasized elegance and weightlessness and accentuated the wearer’s figure. The armor produced north of the Alps around 1480 looked exactly the same; even the elegant poulaine (the long, pointed toe of a shoe) was molded in steel. But in the early sixteenth century the influence of the Italian Renaissance grew stronger, and round, voluminous forms became fashionable. Once again, the new style was enthusiastically taken up in both textile clothing and armor.
The magnificent tiger is the national animal of India, featuring significantly in its myths and legends. It is no surprise then, that a sitting tiger, as a symbol of courage and power, would make a menacing mortar, with bombs issuing from its jaws and tiger's stripes visible on its surface.
This mortar was cast in India in the late 18th century, possibly for Tipu Sultan (1753-1799), known as the Tiger of Mysore. It is a testament to the skill of the unknown founder, weighing in at around 2,540kg. Two of these tiger mortars were seized in 1838 by the British Army under Major-General Wilson, at Fort Kurnaul, Madras Presidency, during local disturbances. This example remained unfinished without a drilled vent and cannot therefore be fired. After being sent to England, the mortars were held at the Tower of London.
