Marbled Monday

It's been a minute since we last posted for Marbled Monday but we're back with an exciting combed French curl or snail pattern! This pattern was created by dropping colors onto the water bath, creating a gel-git (or zig-zag) pattern with a stylus, then combing it once perpendicular to the gel-git with a fine-toothed comb creating a pattern called nonpareil, and finally using a wide-toothed comb to create the characteristic curly swirly snails. This particular pattern uses blue, maroon, cream, and yellow. The marbled paper was used for both the front and back covers and the endpapers of the book.

The book inside the lovely marbled binding is a 1779 ninth edition of Sketches from Nature, which features "upwards of one hundred portraits, or characters, of the most conspicuous persons in the kingdom." This edition was printed for George Kearsly (or Kearsley, 1739-1790) and was written by an anonymous author. It is a satirical piece with humorous profiles of well-known figures and so the names are all printed with blanks in the middles (ie: Mr. G_____s), but in our copy all of the names have been filled in by an industrious owner.

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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

Hundreds and Thousands Biscuits

I Skramz, Therefore I Am Fest 2023 • Nonpareil • 15 October 2023 • RVDA Artspace

fth 2023: bidding open thru 3.5 :-)

I love that @chriscalledmesweetie is signal-boosting @fandomtrumpshate by tweeting about what amazing things spring to life from collective creativity! Further proof, here are three wonderful fic gifts I received in 2021, from @blogstandbygo, @mydogwatson, and @totallysilvergirl . . . [ 💘 What @chriscalledmesweetie said: "Look at this lovely gift I received in a previous year's Fandom Trumps Hate auction. Want a lovely gift of your own? The bidding period for this year's Fandom Trumps Hate auction is open now through March 5. Go forth and bid!" ] .........................................................................

nestled between head and heart by standbygo [T, 8614 words, 2021] A series of vignettes about Sherlock Holmes's lifelong relationship with his violin.

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The Curious Incident of the Detective, the Doctor and the Dogs in the Night by mydogwatson [T, 7652 words, 2021] A meet-cute. Dogs and cases and romance. ........................................................................

A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Tobacco-Ash by Silvergirl [E, 11,475 words, 2021]

A handsome academic approaches Sherlock about publishing his magnum opus on tobacco-ash in a prestigious scientific journal. Sherlock is quite flattered and flustered, and John’s nose is out of joint. In this little AU there is no Fall and no Mary. Instead, there is humor and smut. Truly a disproportionate amount of smut,

Shout out to black masc lesbians specifically

TEDDY : I THOUGHT YOU'D LIKE SOME COMPANY. @nonpareil

COMPANY, A FOREIGN CONCEPT TO HIM AND YET HE WASN'T DISLIKING TO THIS NEW FLOURISHING FRIENDSHIP. PEOPLE WERE OFTEN HELD AT A DISTANCE FOR HIS OWN AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, THEIR OWN PROTECTION. STILL DESPITE HIS MASK OF RECKLESSNESS AND CLOWNERY, TEDDY WOULD GROUND HIM WITH PASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL PULL. " I'D LIKE A BEER. "

deflection into a humour, his forte. a choice to divert away from his true reason for previously sitting alone. index and middle lift filter to lips, the extended drag filling lungs and mimicking the relief of internal stresses.

THERE IS AN ATTEMPT AT A CONVERSATION BUT THE PRESENTATION ITSELF CAUSES BREATH TO GET CAUGHT ON THE RIDGES OF HIS THROAT, BRIEF STRUGGLE FOR OXYGEN BETWEEN THE EXHALES OF SMOKE AND ONLY A MIGHTY COUGH THAT CLEARS HIS AIRWAY, FOLLOWED BY THE BREATHLESSNESS OF A SIMPLE. " FUCK. "

cigarette is thrown upon the ground, current state not needing the further irritation.

" I SHOULD QUIT, THAT SHIT IS SO BAD FOR ME. " A LIAR, HE'D NEVER QUIT.

@nonpareil — “you keep choosing this life, you will die.”

you almost laugh, you almost say that death is inevitable— it will happen to you all, one day, and you won’t have much chance to reflect on the moments that led you there.  the grave awaits you; but for now your still beating heart proves you are living, you ignore the way your foot teeters on the edge of falling dirt, how it crumbles beneath your weight.   there is truth to amata’s words, but they are not what you want to hear, [you like to believe that you’re making a difference—    if you got the chance to come out the other side, why couldn’t others?]    had come face to face with the darkest depths of yourself, a rotting altar before mirror edge.   redemption was no longer out of reach, and sometimes you think that this was the last thing you needed before you could finally grasp it in bloodied fist—      it would never be that easy.  truth be told, others forgive you faster than you are ready to forgive yourself, following an inescapable route as you venture deeper into the labyrinth of suffering.     you mask it well,   tuck the pain, suffering, and death into sewn pockets but the years allowed them to weave themselves into fabric as if spun there in the beginning; improvise brutality without realising that you have already lost.

“i think i’ll take my chances.”     because without it, what do you have left?   your mom, your brother,   your partner—     all dead.  all without the revenge that was justified in the moment,  but as years pass it seems like you cannot stand the reopening of old wounds,   how familiar faces pierce your heart and force you to feel in whatever capacity you still could.    stoic now,  stopped busying yourself sifting through supplies as empty syringes are discarded.    “die now, die later.  at least i’ll get to die for something.”     because you would—     you would sacrifice yourself ten times over if there was a chance to go back and do it all again, make different choices that weren’t so clear to you then like looking through a murky lens of what could be.      “you want some advice?”

I'll take two please

National Chocolate Candy Day (12/28)You have a few of these laying around? Today is the day to treat yourself to something sweet.  And, if you didn’t know, chocolate is a vegetable…so it’s good for you!  A balanced diet is having chocolate in both hands. Nonpareil in French means “having no equal”. Just like that joke.  Right?

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Nonpareil

Nonpareil [nahn-pə-REL] Part of speech: noun Origin: French, early 16th century 1. An unrivaled or matchless person or thing. 2. A flat round candy made of chocolate covered with white sugar sprinkles. Examples of nonpareil in a sentence “In my opinion, the 1961 version is the nonpareil of ‘The Parent Trap’ movies.” “I always indulge in a box of nonpareils when I go to the movies.”

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Marbled Monday

This subtle marbling is a classic nonpareil pattern, which is created by drawing a comb or a stylus through the water bath to create a zig-zag pattern and then combed perpendicular to that with a fine comb to create the lovely small arches seen here. This particular pattern was created using neutrals with small pops of brighter oranges, yellows, greens, and blues. The colors are subtle and play nicely with the rich brown leather of the quarter binding. The slipcase is covered in the same paper.

The book is a facsimile edition of The Book of Thel by William Blake. This edition mimics as closely as possible the original edition of The Book of Thel, right down to the paper. It was published in 1965 by the Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust.

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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

time for everyone to have opinions on sprinkles

i'd love to request the blue underwing // catocala fraxini :-)

Moth Of The Day #96

Blue Underwing / Clifden Nonpareil

Catocala fraxini

From the erebidae family. They have a wingspan of 75-95 mm. They canbe found in broadleaved woodland but wandering adults can be seen in almost any habitat. They can be found throughout nearly all of central and northern Europe, as well as parts of southern Europe.

Reminder of who is who

(Also if you don’t think they’re twins, how big do you think the age gap is?)

Hot cocoa season begins 😌☕️🎄

THE MARQUIS DE GRAMONT : I'M HERE FOR BUSINESS — NOT PLEASURE. @nonpareil

IT WAS HARDLY A BIZARRE PHENOMENON, TO SEE THE PAIR IN THE SAME ROOM, DESPITE THE POLARITY OF LIFESTYLES. AND YET WHAT WAS REMARKABLE, WAS HIS COMPLETE LACK OF ETIQUETTE, A COMMON ATTRIBUTE WITH THE COMPANY SHE KEPT. " WELL, I HATE TO DISAPPOINT YOU AFTER YOUR TRAVELS BUT YOU'RE GONNA NEED THAT RETURN TICKET, VINCENT. "

charred are the fingertips that brush stray hair from woollen lapel, a decade of toying with fires and enticing the flames, her business. this one in particular whose swell of ignition, unpredictable. still she would blow upon its embers to see the reaction.

" MY DIARY IS FULL AND I HAVE PRIOR ENGAGEMENTS. " THERE'S A MOCKERY AS SHE FLICKS THROUGH FIVE PAGES OF THE BOOK PLACED UPON HER DESK, EACH BLANK WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DATE. " YOU SHOULD OF CALLED AHEAD, I WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH MORE ACCOMMODATING. "