Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg: a woman does her hair in the mirror (1833)

On November 12, 1833, there was a meteor shower so intense that it was possible to see up to 100,000 meteors crossing the sky every hour. At the time, many thought it was the end of the world, so much so that it inspired this woodcut by Adolf Vollmy.

Looks of 1833

Hunting dress and black frock coat, day dress with brown frock coat, and evening dress with dressing gown.

Carline or Caroline Thistle. Flore médicale. 1833.

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Path of Lava from Vesuvius Eruptions between 1631 and 1831. 

Map by John Auldjo, 1833.

Sailor made staybusk, 1833

A whalebone staybusk pierced with a suspension hole at the top. It is engraved with a dove carrying a letter above crossed olive branches and a British fort. In the centre is engraved within a diamond 'THE CYRUS ARRIVED Octr 20th 1833'. Below the inscription are a church and a bird perched on a tree branch. The reverse of the item shows a right whale.

The 'Cyrus' 1799, Captain Hingston, was a London whaler that returned to Gravesend on 20 October from the southern ocean. Her owners at this date were Jarvis & Co. The design indicates that it is a love token. The right whale is more associated with earlier whaling activity in the Arctic and Bay of Biscay, but they were also caught in the Pacific. They are baleen rather than toothed whales and live in temperate waters, feeding in relatively shallow seas. The staybusk however is made from bone taken from the lower jaw of a sperm whale.

La Mode, Pl. 287, 2 mars 1833, Paris. Chapeau de velours épinglé par Mme Larochelle. Robe de satin cachemire ouverte surle côté bordée ainsi que le fichu pèlerine de rouleaux de satin et de blonde ornée de noeuds de gaze satinée. Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

The woman on the left is wearing a pink dress with gigot sleeves, a pink tippet, and bows decorating the skirt. She is wearing gloves and earrings and is holding a white handkerchief and white fan in her left hand. She is wearing a pink capote decorated with feathers. The woman on the right is wearing a yellow dress of similar design with earrings and a blue capote decorated with feathers.

Robert Salmon

Boston Harbor from Constitution Wharf, 1833

Bill of Sale for Person Named George

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States Series: Law, Equity, and Criminal Case Files

Know all men by these presents, That I, Albert G. Ewing of the county of Davidson and the state of Tennessee have this day, for and in consideration of five hundred dollars, to me in hand paid by Joseph Woods and John Stacker, Trustees for Samuel Vanleer, his wife and children, under the will of Bernard Vanleer, now recorded in the office of the Davidson county court, state of Tennessee, bargained and sold unto said Trustees, a certain negro boy named George aged about seventeen years; which said slave I warrant to be sound and healthy; and I also will warrant the right and title of said slave, unto said Trustees, their heirs, executors, &c &c. and that said negro boy George is a slave for life. Witness my hand and seal, this sixth day of November 1833. Frederick Bradford Nov. 6. 1833. A.G. Ewing Orville Ewing

Miss Elizabeth Potts, William Etty, 1833

James Pradier: 'Satyre et Bacchante' (1833)

Amours – Le mur mitoyen/The party wall by Paul Gavarni, 1833.

Signs of the Zodiac. Traité élémentaire d'astronomie. 1833.

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