Our beloved Horatio, the hero of Trafalgar, the master of the Nile, makes the press once more.  Nelson, like many during his time and indeed before, indulged in the gratifying practise of taking snuff. – A pinch, here. A pinch, there!  And now, you could own the snuff box that, according to The Telegraph, was the catalyst to the affair between the Englishman and his mistress, Lady Hamilton.  This ‘trinket’ (c.1799), as articled on Friday, 13th January, is to be offered for sale by Paul FraserRead more

Sarah Freese was baptised on 20th September 1771 at Saint Philip’s, Birmingham, England.  She was daughter to Nicholas Freese, Merchant of Guisborough, North Yorkshire, and Birmingham, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Rowney). Son to Jurgen Freese, and his wife, Maria, Nicholas was born in Hamburg, Germany.  He married Miss Rowney on 30th March 1758 in the Parish of Saint Martin, Birmingham, becoming a naturalised British subject on 21st December 1767.  Passing in Birmingham in 1807, Elizabeth also soon passed, following in 1808. MarriedRead more

What’s behind the eye?  Anthropos, Greek for humankind, is represented by the first letter of the Latin alphabet, a Phoenician variant.  The modern term, anthropology, is derived from a combination of anthropos, and logos, to study. The evil eye, a curse bequeathed to one through the glare of another, is believed by many to hold misfortune.  Talismans depicting the eye, are said to ward off these evil spirits, a customary belief held by many. Symbolic of this meaning, the Anthropos emblem combines this idea of a protective talismanRead more

The concept of identity and origins will be explored not solely through the writings of antiquity and the observation of sociocultural anthropology as tradition dictates, but through the reflections of anatomical, physical characteristics, employing the use of Anthropometry. Anthropometry, a discipline of Biological Anthropology, was, during the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, principally concerned with the study of the human being for the classification of ‘race’.  The continuance of the Imperialist age birthed its reputation as a method ofRead more