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“What time is it? Half past a nun’s bum!” Keep track of time during with this Swiss pocketwatch. by Toomey & Co Auctioneers)

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2020-04-06

Hairdresser closed for Why not try a simple new style at home?

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2020-04-05

Nicholas Hawksmoor, architect, died in 1736. " And as his memory must always be dear to his Country, so his loss [must be] felt by those who had the pleasure of his personal acquaintance, and enjoy'd the happiness of his conversation.”

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2020-03-25

Thomas Rowlandson’s Musical Family have got the right idea. They’re safe at home, enjoying a harmonious Sunday... or a Sunday, at least.

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2020-03-22

Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, is her own walking stockpile - that frock’s full of loo roll and tinned tomatoes. from the (By Martin Van Meytens, Hofburg Palace)

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2020-03-19

Daniel Lambert, famed for his enormous weight, was born in 1770. Weighing in excess of 50 stone, Lambert welcomed visitors to his home for a shilling a time. Eventually he grew disillusioned and retired to Leicester.

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2020-03-13

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, artist, died in 1805. He longed to be recognised by the French Academy as a history painter but when they accepted him only as a genre painter, it led to a long-running feud.

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2020-03-04

Who said Pugilists can't be romantic! Buckhorse (active between 1720 and 1750) was a formidable opponent in the ring, and it seems he was an equally formidable romantic.

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2020-02-28

Rembrandt Peale, artist, was born in 1778. He produced a self portrait at the age of 13 and later used it as an example for his students of how even the most accomplished painter began as an amateur in need of improvement.

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2020-02-22

Quarrelsome Lovers by Thomas Rowlandson. "How luckless the sorrowful Wight, Who sees with a termagant Spouse, Her Clamour from Morning till Night, Incessantly rings through the House..."

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2020-02-14

Edward Berry, commander at the Battle of the Nile at at Trafalgar, died in 1831. Along with Nelson and Collingwood, he was one of only three Royal Navy officers to be awarded three Naval Gold Medals. A naval Bananarama, if you like.

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2020-02-13

William Shenstone, poet and landscape gardening pioneer, died in 1763. His garden at The Leasowes made him famous, but cost him his fortune.

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2020-02-11

Peter the Great died in 1725. Struck down with uraemia, in his dying hours he began to write a note but wrote only, “leave all to…” before he was too weak to continue. He died at 52, having ruled for 40 of them.

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2020-02-08

Horatia Nelson, daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, was born in 1801.

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2020-01-29

Viscount Hood, Nelson's mentor, died in 1816.

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2020-01-27

William Pitt the Younger, prime minister, died in 1806. As well as perfecting a casual lean, Pitt was the country’s youngest Prime Minister at just 24.

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2020-01-23

James Francis Edward Stuart, The Old Pretender, died in 1766.

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2020-01-03

Marguerite Gérard - Reading the Letter. Gérard‘s celebrated career saw her work sell to European royalty and Napoleon, who bought a painting of... Napoleon. Naturally.

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2020-01-01

Richard Arkwright, inventor and entrepreneur, was born in 1723.

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2019-12-23

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, died on this day in 1753.

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2019-12-15