18th century blog

The website of the upcoming movie The Duchess is up with lots of photos and information. My favourite thing about it is that many of the costumes are presented with detailed photos and information, I also liked the “discover” section. I have mixed feelings about this movie but mostly I can’t wait to see it! Click the picture to go to the website.

Click the picture to go to a flickr set of an outfit I wore one day for the 18th century weeks at Skansen.

Slott och salar i Sverige by Massimo Listri and Daniel Rey
This is a book about Swedish castles and mansions and mentions several from the 18th century. The photos in the book are really beautiful, but other than that I was pretty disappointed in this book. Every castle or mansion gets a chapter, but there is very little real information. There is mostly anecdotes and speculations and pretty much nothing about historical architecture or interior decorating. Another big problem with the book is that there are no picture texts, nothing is told about the beautiful rooms and buildings in the pictures. I’m glad I have the book because of the photos, but I would not recommend it if you actually want to learn something.

The book is published in both Swedish, English and Italian. In English as Great Houses in Sweden and in italian as Interni di Svezia.

Sofia Magdalenas brudklänning i tidens smak by AnneMarie Dahlberg
This is a tiny little book sold at the Swedish museum Livrustkammaren. It’s about the wedding dress of Sofia Magdalena who later became queen of Sweden. It tells of the wedding and of the construction of the dress, and contains x-rays of the dress bodice. A few other dresses and objects are also shown. There are no actual descriptions on how to go about making the dress, but it’s still useful if you’re interested in making 18th century clothes. It’s an interesting little book with many pictures, and it’s very cheap. if you’re ever at Livrustkammaren I recommend picking it up.

Another Livrustkammaren tip is the pattern of Gustav III:s wedding suit also sold in the museum shop.

I just found these two “sister blogs”, Georgiana’s gossip guide to the 18th century, and Marie Antoinette’s gossip guide to the 18th century. Both very entertaining blogs with bits of 18th century information and lots of pictures, even some I hadn’t seen before. Check them out!

I found a Journée Grand Siècle flickr group. Click the picture to go there.

Click the picture to see photos taken by Lisotchka at the 2008 Vaux le Vicomte event.

Au Cour des Roses
I don’t know the language on this site (german?) so I’m not sure if this is a society or if they hold events or you can rent them for events or something else. It’s a gorgeous site anyway with tons of beautiful photos!

Edit: They both arrange events and you can hire them for events!

In July there will be 18th century weeks at Skansen again, just like last year. There will be costume showings, music, food and more. More information at the Skansen website. (That’s me in the ad above by the way!)

On Sweden’s national day, June 6, the royal castle in Stockholm, an 18th century castle, will have free admission and several special events. Some of the things I’m planning to see are a lecture about Gustav III, Gustav III:s museum of antiquities and a tour at Livrustkammaren. There is a program of the day in English here, at the website of the Swedish court.