Victoriana, etc.

I'm reading The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders.  I picked it up because I loved Judith Flanders's earlier book Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England.  JF writes intelligent, funny, fascinating social history.  One of the more fascinating facts from TIM is that well-off Victorians collected Staffordshire figures of murderers and victims.

Potash Farm, the home of murderer James Blomfield Rush

.
The barn where William Corder (at the door) murdered Maria Marten (at the left).

The Victorians united the charmingness of porcelain with the grisliness of murder!

Mystery Silverware

My mother gave me this family thing. She didn't know what it's for. It looks a bit shallow for a candlestick--and why is there a little hole in the bowl? The handle thing used to be longer.

Can anybody give me any information? I'd be so grateful.

Scenes From my World

Here, a clay griffin I made a long time ago is checking out a glass cornucopia that I bought from the Tesuque Glassworks.

These knick-knacks appear to be enjoying themselves.

Obviously a garden party.

A day at the beach.

John Collins's cubicle. I put a link to my blog on his blog.