Ephemera: oiseleurs
Just as I was preparing the article on the oiseleurs of Paris, John Canepa sent me some old photographs showing a French bird market and its customers. ... Read More
London Fancy
Practice: hens who know best
A Lizard canary hen on the nest, nothing unusual about that. Now take a closer look: the nest is on the floor. Why some hens do this I don’t know, but I trust their instincts.... Read More
History, part 8: the oiseleurs of Paris
Anyone who wanted to buy a pet bird in Paris in the late 1600s would have known exactly where to find one: the quai de la Megisserie, a bustling area on the right bank of the Seine (1); or, if it was a Sunday, on the Vallée de Misère and the Pont au Change at […]... Read More
Book Review: Markus zum Lamm Die Vogelbilder
Marcus zum Lamm (1544-1606) must be one of the best kept secrets in the history of the canary. Most people with an interest in the subject have never heard of him. ... Read More
History, part 5: the Huguenot legend and the comfort of opinion
The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort […]... Read More
History, part 4: the Last of France
Before anyone familiar with the Pre-Raphaelites (1) points it out, the illustration above has nothing to with France and was painted in a different era from the great Huguenot exodus, which is the subject of this post. Yet, when you try to understand what emigration meant to real people; their commitment, their emotions, this painting […]... Read More
The first 100 days
A nice round number and a surprise, because it is one hundred days since Fine Spangled Sort went ‘live’. According to the site statistics, I have written 25 articles that are read between 50 and 100 times a day on average, peaking at over 300 (of course, that could be one person visiting 300+ times). Not […]... Read More