g.j.hilton
banner
hltn.bsky.social
g.j.hilton
@hltn.bsky.social
historian of renaissance & em scenography: the material, manufacturers & manufacturing of spectacle - machines, entries, feasts, gardens. (burgundy, you're my favorite.)

(2025) msc bweh, edinburgh medical school

whitby, n.yorks because: goth
Desirable.

Albumen Silver-Print, 7.1 x 5.2 inches, c. 1910

"Highly likely a previously unknown photograph of the performers and costumed service at one of the Parisian Belle Epoque macabre themed bars - Cabaret de L’Enfer or Cabaret du Néant"

www.eldritchoculum.com/inventory/p/...
November 24, 2025 at 3:25 PM
What I wouldn't give for one more learned FaceTime seminar about some obscure female silversmith of the early c19th.

In the background: his FGA and NAG: Smart guy. Not bad for a lad from Rodney St. And some toy monkeys from Gibraltar: sweet guy too.

Miss you, JD ❤️
November 18, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by g.j.hilton
This image is part of a detailed account of King Edward VI’s procession in 1547 from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster on the day before his coronation. Unique to this scene is its recording of the City, especially Cheapside with its goldsmiths’ shops.
November 15, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I'm not any kind of Italianist but surely 'gl'immascherati' / 'li ma(scher)ati' ought to be translated 'masquers' (ie and not 'masks')?

Leonardo. The Literary Works of Leonardo Da Vinci: Compiled and Edited from the Original Manuscripts. Edited by Jean Paul Richter. Phaidon, 1970. Vol II § 748A
November 14, 2025 at 1:38 PM
✍ Introducing ✍

Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography

gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/

AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.

#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.

Love g 🗃️
Sharpie
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for apprentice Early Modern palaeographers
gjhilton.github.io
November 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Curse you, autocorrect, why do you not understand 'palaeography'? Make a damn fool of me go right ahead!

Sorry, folks no dinosaurs.
November 12, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by g.j.hilton
✍ Introducing ✍

Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeontology

gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/

AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.

#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.

Love g 🗃️
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
The reference is Irving Penn's portrait of Arctic explorer Peter Freuchen & his wife, Dagmar.

www.newyorker.com/culture/phot...
November 12, 2025 at 6:51 AM
✍ Introducing ✍

Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeontology

gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/

AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.

#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.

Love g 🗃️
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"Of all the sets and all the set pieces - a Frankenstein movie I think the key piece is the lab. That's the one obligatory scene." - @realgdt.bsky.social

Set tour: m.youtube.com/watch?v=JRiL...

(Also, the set I wanted so much to design it's how I furnished the bottom floor of my house…)
November 8, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Instagram is an absolute close stool of a website but this post from the legendary Ivan Day on the serving of early modern pies is totally essential

www.instagram.com/p/DQxpkIpDIG8/

(All images are his and are fully described in his post - read more there!)
November 8, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Kate Hawley on gothtuming @realgdt.bsky.social Frankenstein.

www.phantasmag.com/articles/gui...

Irresistible the way this references Vera West's costume for the 1935 Bride - those sleeves!
November 6, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Pair of truly gorgeous Austin Osman Spare watercolours with Bellmans next month. Would part with a kidney in a heartbeat to finance, heck both kidneys if you insist.

The £1000 estimate is the living definition of a put up 'come by me' job unfortunately.

www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auctio...
November 1, 2025 at 5:30 AM
1586. George French of Kingsbridge, Devon had the model Elizabethan garden: formal knot garden, parterres, arbour... BIG SURROUNDING WALL.

(Pretty much mouthwatering) detail from a map with Forum Auctions next month.

www.forumauctions.co.uk/157131/Devon...
October 31, 2025 at 4:11 AM
As far as I can tell this hasn't been noticed until I showed my amazing mum - who's spent 2 years working with the Frank Meadow Sutcliffe archive at #Whitby Museum - George du Maurier's Whitby Vikings cartoon from Punch. The FMS picture is "c1885", the cartoon 1881 but that "circa" could be critical
October 26, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Extracurricular obsession with (a) blue food (b) imaginary flavours continues to be a hurdle to e.g. sleep, reintegration into polite society etc.

This via Mr Tee www.instagram.com/mrtee_offici...
October 26, 2025 at 12:49 AM
[Terry Thomas voice] Well hel-lo.
October 25, 2025 at 11:02 AM
In which a throwaway trailing modifier phrase opens up so many more questions than it resolves...

Cressy, David. “Death and the Social Order: The Funerary Preferences of Elizabethan Gentlemen.” Continuity and Change 5, no. 1 (1990): 99–119. doi.org/10.1017/S026....
October 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Another day, another post shamelessly fanboying Tamara Deverell, production designer of @realgdt.bsky.social's Frankenstein:

Deverell dumped some juicy reference imagery on Instagram last week - the cropping / reframing she chose lets you follow her eye at work

🧵

www.instagram.com/p/DPqPKrajUGh
October 23, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Problem: You've got a webpage containing an embedded IIIF but what you want is a nice old-fashioned max resolution PNG.

Solution: github.com/gjhilton/Rip...

No warranties, no support. Most of all: people who digitise manuscripts deserve LOVE, not this sort of thing - please don't use for evil.
GitHub - gjhilton/RippyFish
Contribute to gjhilton/RippyFish development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Bidding now open for the sale of the Jim Henson company's archive: I am being unfairly personally targeted by the lavish selection of dishes and tableware from the show-stealing Skeksis banquet scene in Dark Crystal.

www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/...
October 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Google Books captcha generator has a low opinion of vol 2 of the records of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the North Riding of the County of York (1612-1620).
October 19, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Were any of my organs so tradeable - if only! - I would hock the dripping lot to Satan in a moment to write a single paragraph like Angela Carter.
October 18, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Here's that diagram showing the Hindi naming of the components of elephant caparison you didn't know you needed.

(From the highly-recommended www.sahapedia.org/elephant-reg... )
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Astonishingly gorgeous nef (lower left).
A magnificent exhibition: "Nürnberg Global, 1300-1600," showcasing stunning #MedievalSky & #EarlyModern objects—paintings, engravings, goldsmithing & scientific objects, woodcuts, books (of hours), architectural models, sculptures, armor, textiles, coins. It's SO good!
🗃️ #HistSci #ArtHistory 🏛️
October 13, 2025 at 10:46 AM