Warframe fanart stylised after cinematics in The Sacrifice questline

Detail of Coupe à décor de marguerites et de hanneton by Henri Husson, ca. around 1909, copper and silver plating

Paris Musées

Here's a commission of Church Grim with spider lillies!

The Church Grim is a mythical creature from English folklore, that is said to be a guardian spirit that protects churches and churchyards. It is believed to take the form of a large black dog, often with glowing eyes, and is said to be the spirit of the first person to be buried in the churchyard. The Church Grim is said to be a friendly and protective spirit, but can also be mischievous and even vengeful towards those who disrespect the church or disturb its peace. The belief in the Church Grim is still present in some rural areas of England, although it has largely faded from popular culture in modern times.

A memento mori pendant (circa 1540) found in England paints a vivid picture of mortality. The inscription, however, has a more solacing message: Christ’s resurrection redeems sins.

Frame, design 16th century

Symbolist triptych, 1887 by Clément Mère

The Cauchie House - Rue des Francs 5, 1040 Brussels

This Art Nouveau house was designed and built by the architect, painter, and designer Paul Cauchie and his wife, Lina, in 1905, the year they were married. It served as their private residence and workshop.

The house is only 6 meters (20 feet) wide. The facade was meant to advertise Cauchie's sgraffito artwork and Lina's art classes. Cauchie created hundreds of sgraffito murals in Belgium.

Photos by Charles Reeza, 2023

"Blue Flower" by Thato Mosala 

‘’Peonies in the Wind with Kakemono Borders’ (circa 1893) by John La Farge.

Stained glass and lead.

Image and text information courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Today I went to the Collect 2024 art fair at Somerset House and saw lots of wonderful decorative art. Here's just a small selection.

You know what I realised?

I haven't really showed you guys any of the stuff I did for a ceramics class this year. So. Seahorse, anyone?

Technically I made two of them, but. Quality of the clay they provided us with this year was just short of atrocious, leaving more than half of the works cracked if not worse, much to confusion of our teacher as to why. So it could really be better. But I guess I should be counting my blessings, for at least it didn't crack in half, ass the panel had. Oh well.

Still, it was kinda fun and I am kinda proud of it even

I played through the newest quest in Warframe and I wanted to draw fanart for a while now. It took forever as I always draw lineart on max zoom focused on details that don't really matter hah. One thing about warframe quests that I adore is how much depth and focus on humanity is in most of them.

Bouillon Julien in Paris, France +

Vintage Pressed Dried Flowers Framed Art by Patricia Williams Tasmania Australia || SWtradepost - ebay

‘POND LILY’ TABLE LAMP | TIFFANY, 1903

the most-expensive tiffany lamp sold to date, which was auctioned off at christie’s in 2018 for $3.3 million.

Decorative Sunday: Paste Paper Edition

In 1942, Harvard University Press printed 250 copies of Decorated Book Papers: Being an Account of the Designs and Fashions by the bookbinder, author, and creator and collector of decorative papers, Rosamond Bowditch Loring. Published by the Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the 234 sale copies of the first edition sold out within months, despite the “then considerable price of ten dollars” and the economic stressors of the war. In addition to eight plates reproducing examples of 18th century decorative papers, the first edition includes twenty-five samples tipped in, many of which are from the author’s own extensive collection. 

While Loring collected a variety of a decorative papers, the examples shown here are from the chapter on paste papers, Loring’s area of creative specialization. The sample papers included in this chapter are all Loring’s own work, or that of her student, Veronica Ruzicka, who bound the first edition (it is worthy to note that Ruzicka is the daughter of illustrator, wood engraver, and type designer Rudolph Ruzicka, whose work we have highlighted several times). Ruzicka also contributed an essay when a second edition of the book was finally published by Harvard University Press in 1952, along with Dard Hunter and Walter Muir Whitehall. 

Rosamond Loring (May 2, 1889 – September 17, 1950) studied book binding under Mary Crease Sears at the Sears School of Bookbinding in Boston. Sears, about a decade older than Loring, had had to battle to learn the trade; women were barred from the Bookbinders Union but most commercial binderies were happy to hire women for particular tasks, such as sewing sheets, but maintained a strict separation of roles, preventing employees from learning the whole binding process from start to finish. Eventually, Ms. Sears secured an apprenticeship in France to complete her studies and opened her binding school in Boston shortly after, training several generations of women binders. While studying under Sears, Loring became frustrated with the lack of options for quality endpapers and became determined to make her own, which she sold to other binders at Ms. Sears’s studio. Her first major commercial commission was for the Houghton Mifflin publication of The Antigone of Sophocles, translated by John J. Chapman (Boston, 1930).

Our copy of Decorated Book Papers is a gift of Dick Schoen. 

-Olivia Hickner, Special Collections Graduate Intern