In Silber gekleidet, aber ohne Pferd - Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia "als Amazone", by Antoine Pesne

 

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia in riding costume (or more likely fancy dress), by Antoine Pesne, before 1757.

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Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, studio of Antoine Pesne, after 1744.

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Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (9 November 1723, Berlin – 30 March 1787, Berlin), daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and sister of Frederick the Great, a composer and music curator, who served as princess-abbess of the Free Secular Imperial Abbey of Quedlinburg. She was a princess of Prussia as the twelfth child and seventh daughter of King Frederick William I and his wife, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. She had thirteen siblings, ten of whom survived infancy. She was musically inclined, like her brother Frederick, but her formal instruction was only possible after the death of their emotionally and physically abusive father. Secretly, though, she was first taught by her brother - with the support of their mother - and learned to play the harpsichord, the flute, and the violin. She was sixteen when her father died and her brother succeeded him. Three years later, she and her elder sister Louisa Ulrika were put forward as possible brides for the heir to the Swedish throne; her sister was chosen and she would remain unmarried. In 1755, at the age of thirty-two, she was elected princess-abbess of the Quedlinburg Abbey - Kasierlich Freie Weltliche Reichsstift Quedlinburg - which made her a wealthy and influential woman with the right to sit and speak in the Imperial Diet. She was known for her intelligent and disciplined leadership, managing the abbey's finances, overseeing its estates, and protecting the abbey’s independence during political disputes. Apparently, though, she still spent most of her time in Berlin devoting herself to music, becoming known as a composer, but also as a great patron. She achieved modest contemporary fame in the former role and was best known for her chamber music. Only a few of her works have survived, though, as she described herself as very self-critical, and is believed to have destroyed many of her own compositions. She was also an important collector of music, preserving over six hundred volumes by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Carl Heinrich Graun, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, among others. Her library was split between East and West Germany after World War II, but reunited after the German reunification. Today it is housed in the Berlin State Library. She died at the age of sixty-three and was buried in the Berlin Cathedral.

Merely the very best "accessories" - Alice, Viscountess Wimborne and her jewelry at auction, Christie’s, 2025

 

The Wimborne family owned a truly impressive collection of jewels, many of which remained in the family's collection into the current century. A number of them, though, - those pictured here, along with a few other pieces - were auctioned by Christie’s, London in November of this year.

Pendant, with carved and calibré set emeralds, diamonds, and pearls, circa 1925.

Lady Wimborne posed in the ballroom of Wimborne House, a Cecil Beaton portrait from the 1930s.

In addition to other jewels, Lady Wimborne is wearing the original, longer version of the diamond sautoir and the emerald and diamond pendant.

Paired here as originally worn, the pendant and the sautoir were auctioned separately.

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Pendant with ruby and calibré set rubies, purple/pink sapphire, and diamonds, circa 1925.

This 1928 portrait of Lady Wimborne by Beaton was published in the Tatler and dubbed "The Shingled Vicereine" because of the her stylish "shingled" hairstyle.

Dressed in a gown by Poiret, she wears the ruby/sapphire and diamond pendant suspended from the diamond sautoir, seen again in its original, longer form.

Her ruby and diamond bandeau-style tiara by Chaumet, seen here, was sold at Christie's in 1971.

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Cartier emerald and diamond bracelet, circa 1925.

Another Beaton portrait of Lady Wimborne from the 1930s.

In addition to the Chaumet tiara and sautoir and emerald pendant, her Cartier emerald and diamond bracelet can clearly be seen, among others, on her left wrist.

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Diamond sautoir - originally longer - circa 1925.

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Emerald and diamond earrings, circa 1920.

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Composite diamond and emerald tiara - some elements possibly created earlier - the three flowerhead elements mounted en tremblant, circa 1915.

The back of the central flowerhead element, showing how it is set en tremblant.

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Viscountess Wimborne, by Sir John Lavery, 1939. Inscribed on the reverse by the artist, "THE LADY IN WHITE/VISCOUNTESS/WIMBORNE."
The gown, by Vionnet, appears to be the same one worn by the sitter in the first and third Beaton portraits shared above.

Alice Katherine Sibell, Viscountess Wimborne (née Grosvenor, 26 September 1880, Watford, England - 17 April 1948, London), English aristocrat and prominent society hostess. She married Ivor Churchill Guest - later Baron Ashby St Ledgers, then 1st Viscount Wimborne - in 1902. They had one son, Ivor Guest, later 2nd Viscount Wimborne, and two daughters, Rosemary and Cynthia. She and her husband were amicably separated by the 1930s, and from 1934 to her death she was in a relationship with the composer William Walton; she is credited as the inspiration for his Violin Concerto. Photographed by Beaton, her portrait painted by Lavery, she was known for her vivacity, individual style, and personal independence. She was also an astute political spouse and great supporter of the arts. She died of lung cancer at the Ritz at the age of sixty-seven.

In his Laughter in the Next Room, published in 1948 - the year of her death - her friend, the writer and poet, Sir Osbert Sitwell, wrote of her:

Her great beauty, subtle and full of glamour though it was, and the fact that she was the wife of one of the richest men in England, were apt to blind people equally to her political intelligence, interest, and experience. The attitude she presented to the world of a fashionable beauty who dressed with daring and loved admiration, the guise of an accomplished woman of the world, which was hers naturally, by birth, tradition and upbringing, hid from the crowd the clever woman who inhabited this exquisite shell.

Our holiday card for 2025

 

To my dear Gigi go all the laurels! Or maybe all the holly? The talented human I get to spend my life with conjured this year's odd little confection. I love it!

Is it warm in here, or is it just me...?

The game of youth - a selection of photographs by Luke Smalley

I believe that most, if not all, of the images here were published in Luke Smalley's first book, Gymnasium. The photographer stated that they were taken primarily in western Pennsylvania between 1988 and 2000. He used real high school athletes as models, and he pictured them engaged in a series of scenarios, unusual and whimsical competitions invented by the photographer, who often designed and crafted his own athletic equipment, props, and costumes. While resisting any gimmicks to make the images seem "vintage," Smalley was inspired by fitness manuals and yearbook photographs from the turn of the twentieth century. Many of the photographs are mildly homoerotic, but never overt. Rather, he employs his coolly minimalist aesthetic, coupled with an only hinted at nostalgia, to very gently subvert the ideal of the "small town youth," particularly the athletic "all-American" young man.

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Luke Smalley (6 June 1955, Pennsylvania – 17 May 2009, Pennsylvania), American photographer and art director. After attended Hunter College and Northeastern University, he graduated with a degree in sports medicine from Pepperdine University and then worked for a number of years as a model and personal trainer in California. Turning to photography, his work eventually appeared in prominent magazines and many high-profile advertising campaigns. In addition to his gallery exhibitions, three collections of his work were published during his lifetime, and one posthumously. He died unexpectedly - I've found no mention of the cause - at the age of fifty-three.