Medici porcelain
Medici porcelain was the first successful attempt in Europe to imitate Chinese porcelain.
Coco de Mer
The Coco de Mer is a palm endemic to the islands of Praslin. Until the true source of nut was discovered in 1768, it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea; European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts cleaned and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries. The Coco de Mer is now a rare protected species.
Notgeld
After WW1 in Germany, Notgeld (emergency currency) was issued by cities, boroughs, even private companies while there was a shortage of official coins and bills.
Ocelot
Ocelot fur was once regarded as particularly valuable, but legal trade of its fur ceased decades ago. Like many wild cats, ocelots are occasionally kept as pets. Salvador Dalí frequently traveled with his pet ocelot Babou, even bringing it aboard the luxury ocean liner SS France.
Semipalatinsk Test Site
Between 1949 and 1989, the Semipalatinsk Test Site was one of the primary locations for Soviet above and below ground nuclear testing.
Julian MacLaren-Ross
Julian Maclaren-Ross fitted the profile of a Soho flaneur. The story of his career is one of a spiralling descent, and his biographer Paul Willets described him as “the mediocre caretaker of his own immense talent”. In Anthony Powell’s A Dance To The Music Of Time he’s lightly fictionalised as a novelist. Careless, feckless, cripplingly impractical, he squandered his grand ability, the talent to write. Always the dandy, with his waved hair, elegant overcoat, and silver-topped Malacca cane, and an effortlessly riveting raconteur, his shambolic life of short-leash rootlessness tacked around the fringes of the literary establishment, involving permanent insolvency and occasional bouts of homelessness.
Marine chronometers
Marine chronometers are precise, specialized clocks for finding longitude at sea.
Sümela Monastery
The Sümela Monastery stands at the foot of a steep cliff facing the Altındere valley in Turkey. Legend has it that two priests undertook the founding of the monastery on the site after having discovered a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary in a cave on the mountain.
Peking to Paris Race
In 1907 five teams of intrepid motorists embarked upon the most grueling motor challenge at that time - to drive their cars in a run from Peking to Paris.
A Hero of Our Time
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov is a a psychologically probing portrait of a disillusioned 19th-century aristocrat. The novel is set in the Russian Caucasus in the 1830s. Grigory Pechorin is a bored, self-centered, and cynical young army officer who believes in nothing. With impunity he toys with the love of women and the goodwill of men.