Category Archives: Festivals

The Star of the Kings

Posted on January 3, 2013 by mercedes-c

A few months ago, I came across the image below while cataloguing a series of prints of the months from a late seventeenth-century almanac in Douce’s collection: The man pouring water from a vase next to a fountain in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Almanacs, Carols, Engravings, Everyday life, Feast, Festivals, Prints, Seasons, Stipple, Zodiac | Comments Off on The Star of the Kings

Sea-monsters and spinning sows

Posted on August 25, 2012 by mercedes-c

Douce collected a remarkable number of woodcuts published by the Antwerp-based book-seller Joannes Norbertus Vinck. They are mostly popular prints, often coloured (a bit coarsely) in yellow and red. My favourite is this bespectacled spinning sow: Although the theme of … Continue reading →

Posted in Colour, Festivals, Popular prints, Prints, Woodcuts | Comments Off on Sea-monsters and spinning sows

Mid-August in Messina

Posted on August 15, 2012 by mercedes-c

Between 1782 and 1787, the French painter and printmaker Jean Hoüel (1735-1813) published a travel book entitled Le Voyage pittoresque des isles de Sicile, de Malte et de Lipari. Douce included one of the 264 plates that illustrated Hoüel’s work … Continue reading →

Posted in Aquatint, Festivals, Prints, Religion, Travel | Comments Off on Mid-August in Messina

Rural sports

Posted on July 27, 2012 by mercedes-c

On the same day the Olympic Games are officially starting in London, and in the spirit of Douce’s wonderfully mad notebooks of Coincidences (Bodleian), the first image that came to my attention when opening the folder of prints to catalogue … Continue reading →

Posted in Colour, Drawings, Everyday life, Festivals, Games, Prints, Satirical prints, Sports | Tagged | Comments Off on Rural sports

A festival book

Posted on July 25, 2012 by mercedes-c

Two weeks after my post on tournaments, I have come across a few more prints on this subject, kept in a different location. Among Douce’s ‘miscellaneous woodcuts’, there are five hand-coloured illustrations taken from Ordenliche Beschreybung der Fürstlichen Hochzeyt…  (Augsburg, 1568) … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquaries, Collections and Collectors, Colour, Festivals, Prints, Romances, Woodcuts | Comments Off on A festival book

French Prints and Fans

Posted on May 30, 2012 by mercedes-c

My colleague Cath Casley has noticed a pretty fan in the Ashmolean’s collection which seems to relate to some of the prints in which Douce was interested -I am copying her message below: Found this fan within the collection of … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadsides, Everyday life, Festivals, Napoleon, Prints, Relics, Religion | Comments Off on French Prints and Fans

Palm Sunday

Posted on April 3, 2012 by mercedes-c

Douce was very interested in religious ceremonies and devotional practices and hence he gathered a remarkable number of prints on this subject. However, the only depictions of Easter parades that I have found among his prints are images of Palm Sunday … Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday life, Festivals, Prints, Religion | Comments Off on Palm Sunday