Old book illustrations wordshop

…Designed in memory of the wedding of grand Duke Michael of Russia with Princess Cecilia of Baden.
The city of Karlsruhe has recently given commission for a piece of art which we would be sorry not to reproduce here. The work is now kept in St. Petersburg; it is a tribute from the city to Princess Olga Feodorovna, Princess Cecilia of Baden, The Grand Duke’s sister, on the occasion of her wedding to Prince Michael of Russia, brother of Emperor Alexander. This composition, very much in the German taste, is the work of two distinguished artists: Mr. Bayer, who did the plaster model, and Mr. Bauer, who made the sculpture, with great skill in the rendering of the various shapes.
Here is the subject: a rider, dressed as a knight of the Middle Ages, rides his palfrey, taking his fiancee with him, under the protection of two angels who accompany him on each side. These words by the psalmist give this kind of kidnapping its …Read more »

IGUANA s. ( Carib yana). Herpet. genus of saurians, which includes three or four species of great lizards that inhabit Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Martinique, and whose …Read more »

“Shall we pass into the next room, sire?” said Saint-Aignan, opening the door to let his guests precede him. The king walked behind La Valliere, and fixed his eyes lingeringly and passionately upon her neck as white as snow, upon which her long fair ringlets fell in heavy masses.
La Valliere was dressed in a thick silk robe of pearl gray color, with a tinge of rose, with jet ornaments, which displayed to greater effect the dazzling purity of her skin, holding in her slender and transparent hands a bouquet of heartsease, Bengal roses, and clematis, surrounded with leaves of the tenderest green, above which uprose, like a tiny
goblet shedding perfumes, a Haarlem tulip of gray and violet tints, of a pure and beautiful species, which had cost the gardener five years’ toil of combinations and the king five thousand francs.
Louis had placed this bouquet in La Valliere’s hand as he saluted her.
In the room, the door of which Saint-Aignan had just opened, a young man …Read more »

GONDOLA s. (Lat. gondola). Small, flat and very long boat which is particularly used in Venice, as means of transportation over canals, and which can only be …Read more »

GINSENG s. Bot. Shrub, genus aralia, which grows in Tartary and Canada, and whose root, called the same name, is invigorating and stimulating: experience has not confirmed in Europe the wonderful properties with which …Read more »