David Clifford
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david52.bsky.social
David Clifford
@david52.bsky.social
Archivist with interests in metadata, cataloguing, marketing, and heritage. Also loves cats. 🐈‍⬛ 🇺🇦
Reposted by David Clifford
10 days ago we were awarded as the best importer for French wines in the UK for the 3rd year in a row. That’s an achievement in my books!

Here is a good article about the day.

Next week we do our thing with Aussie wines at their annual tastings.

www.the-buyer.net/tasting/wine...
The Buyer | How VIN 2026 tasting was a snapshot of what France is all about
VIN 2026, the first wine event of the calendar year, managed to deliver both an excellent tasting and a joyful celebration of Francophilia, focused as it was on the diversity of French wine, the less ...
www.the-buyer.net
January 20, 2026 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Still time to sign up for the DPC's event on Preserving eBooks where we will be hearing from @wisealic.bsky.social, @jasminemulliken.bsky.social, @northgardner.bsky.social and more. Further details and registration here: www.dpconline.org/events/event...
Preserving eBooks: where are we now? - Digital Preservation Coalition
www.dpconline.org
January 19, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Stanley Spencer painted about a dozen landscapes in and around Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire during the early 1940s. The village, not far from Stroud, contains the remains of a Benedictine priory which lies at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment.
January 18, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Our VCH Herefordshire project - having produced a series of excellent paperback histories over the last 15 years - are working towards the first #BigRedBook for the county in over a century.

Learn more about the project, focussed on #Ledbury, and research, by following @lrylandepton.bsky.social. 🗃️
January 15, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Robert Borlase Smart was a frequent traveller, especially to Italy. From outside the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi in Venice, where this picture was painted, he could have chosen a view of the Ponte di Rialto but opted for the more modest Fondaco dei Tedeschi, next to it.
January 14, 2026 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
'Dedham Vale, Evening,' (1802) was painted close to John Constable's home at East Bergholt in Suffolk, the year he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London - he was gathering the material that would fuel his creative ideas for the rest of his working life.
January 12, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Hello new followers!

We are the longest-established and most ambitious Local History project yet devised.

Established in 1899, and part of @ihr.bsky.social and
@chppc.bsky.social, we aim to produce histories of every English place from the earliest time to the ever moving now.
Victoria County History
The Victoria County History is one of the world's longest-running research projects, exploring England's rich local history.
www.history.ac.uk
January 12, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Congratulations to our @ihr.bsky.social MA student Amy Walker @amywalkerhist.bsky.social, who completed the course this autumn, on this blog post - giving an insight into her fascinating research into social history and ordinary lives in #Greenwich.
globalmaritimehistory.com/windows_maps...
Windows into past worlds - using maps to find forgotten history - Global Maritime History
Amy Walker is a historian specialising in histories of poverty, ‘ordinary people’, and heritage. She completed an Undergraduate degree at the University of Greenwich and a Masters degree at the Instit...
globalmaritimehistory.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Always lovely to work with History UK. If you are struggling with a second project do come along to the IHR tomorrow to think, discuss and problem solve.
Looking forward to this History UK event on Second Projects tomorrow. If you’re in/can get to London tomorrow and would like to attend do let us know!
If you or anyone you know might be interested, it is still possible to sign up for and attend this workshop on second projects tomorrow:

www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-uk-r...
January 12, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Today is Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, when agricultural labourers would start to plough the fields in preparation for sowing and planting crops. Hopefully the end result would be as beautiful as these fields, from a manuscript map of Hunsdon House, Herts, c1820 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
January 12, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Start the Week at 9 on BBC Radio 4. Three absolute crackers: Daisy Fancourt’s Art Cure, Tom Service’s A History of the World in 50 Pieces, and Chekhov’s youthful comedy, with Rosamund Bartlett.

We bring the joy in dark January.
January 12, 2026 at 7:11 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
This close up is of one of two stained glass panels depicting maritime trade, this one shows what we think is Copenhagen in Denmark.
January 7, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
This new blogpost from @ihr.bsky.social by Daisy Mansfield, a volunteer with our @vch-london.bsky.social project, currently working on the parish of St Anne #Soho looks at what we can learn abut the life of the area in the 18th century from the works of William Hogarth. 🗃️
Soho at Noon: Satire, Stratification, and Urbanisation in William Hogarth’s London - On History
Daisy Mansfield is volunteer with VCH London, focusing on artists in Soho. In this blog, she discusses what we can learn about Soho in the eighteenth-century from the work of the renowned artist and c...
blog.history.ac.uk
January 9, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Winter, Edvard Munch, 1899.
January 7, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
'Snow effect, Damvillers.' (1882)
Since the earliest days of his career, Jules Bastien-Lepage had been fascinated with the way that snow transforms a familiar landscape, softening forms, reflecting light, and unifying the landscape in tone and texture. An exquisite picture.
January 5, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Are you a PG research student based outside of London? Did you know that you may be eligible for a bursary of up to £500 to take one of our short courses in 2026? Find out more on our IHR Research Training and Short Courses page: www.history.ac.uk/study-traini... Applications open until 31 Jan 2026
Research Training and Short Courses
The IHR offers a wide range of training courses for historians at all career stages, from digital research and oral history to archives and publishing.
www.history.ac.uk
January 5, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
'Ice Hockey.' The 1920s witnessed the height of Laura Knight’s career, as scenes depicting Cornwall and the Diaghilev Ballet gained popularity among the picture-buying public. This work was painted in 1927 while Knight was recovering from a broken ankle.
January 4, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
The power of ephemera! These things will have been mass-produced to be disposable, thousands manufactured and tossed out straight away; I suspect many will be the only surviving example. Everyday "rubbish" becomes a time-capsule if you just wait long enough.
A collection of more than 1,100 napkins are being preserved in perpetuity alongside documents from the Founding Fathers and tomes dating to the 15th century.

The collection offers a window into decades of American history and social change.
A Virginia woman’s epic paper napkin collection is being preserved
Her collection of more than 1,000 napkins, which the Library of Virginia is keeping safe, includes a series from the Pentagon that warns of threats.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 4, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
In this painting from the 1920s, Douglas Percy Bliss has used beautifully sequenced low tones to create a feeling of unease. The picture depicts Over Palce which was situated under the railway off Newport Street in Vauxhall. It was destroyed in the Blitz during WW2.
January 3, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Looking to boost your historical research skills in 2026? Check out our range of research training and short courses. More coming in Term 3!
www.history.ac.uk/study-traini...
Research Training and Short Courses
The IHR offers a wide range of training courses for historians at all career stages, from digital research and oral history to archives and publishing.
www.history.ac.uk
January 2, 2026 at 4:02 PM
My final cappacuino of the year as I await the train departure down to the New Forest.
December 31, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by David Clifford
Give this a go, it’s good fun & you discover pictures you haven’t seen before!
Spare time during Twixmas? Ever dreamed of curating your own exhibition with the UK's art collection? 🖼️

#CurateYourOwn online showcase of artworks with our Curations tool 👉 https://artuk.org/discover/curations
December 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
Peder Krøyer first visited Skagen at the northernmost point of Denmark
in 1882 and became captivated by the light and the landscape. One of the distinguishing features of his paintings (this is 1908) is that moment when the sky is illuminated by two sources of natural light.
December 28, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by David Clifford
They eat tomatoes in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Tolkien deliberately kept tomatoes out of his books, because they're a new world fruit, and wouldn't have existed in the proto-european Middle-Earth he invented. It riles me every time.
Let’s air those grievances. I want to hear your pettiest gripes on this the holiest of days.
December 25, 2025 at 12:12 PM