In the cellar there was no sound at all except her own breathing and the soft rustle of her skirts. After her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, she noticed a niche in the wall a yard from where she stood. She saw something there about the size of her fist. Agnes quietly picked it up. It was ...
I will never again look at a piece of china or porcelain decoration without thinking of where it was made. This book gave a really interesting story of how alchemy and the search for the philosopher's stone (to make gold out of base metals) led to the first true porcelain manufacturing in Europe...
New Year's Day, 1755 The life of Nathaniel Hopson, journeyman to the illustrious cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale, is about to take a chilling turn. He has been sent to Cambridge to install a new library at the country home of Lord Montfort. Moments after the foul-tempered Montfort storms away fro...
John Law has to be one of the most fascinating men of the 18th century. The son of self-made goldsmith in Scotland, he rose to be one of the richest people in Europe, then the most powerful man in France, and finally a hated bankrupt chased across the continent for the remainder of his life.The h...
I'm not terribly knowledgeable as far as historical accuracy goes, but it seems - from my amateur view - like Gleeson did a good job. Even her style felt vintage, though she easily avoided the monotonous droning that Victorian novels tend towards.I was enthralled with the mystery and the people t...
During the last Dyet at Grodno, a Mortification seiz'd his Foot; for which reason, M. de Petit, a Surgeon at Paris, whom the King sent for on purpose, cut off two toes, and set his Majesty upon his Legs again, but told him withal, he must observe such a Regimen as he prescrib'd to him, or else it...