Study for April by Harold Speed (1872-1957), date unknown.

Portrait of Mrs. Stanhope by Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), c. 1784.

“Queen of the Ranch” cigarette card, date unknown.

An excerpt from the back:

Such a girl, as she goes out to the round-up dressed cowboy style, and carrying a smaller edition of his weapons, is the idol of every man on the ranch. The cowboys are a rough lot, but no class in the world has higher regard for good women. Their one dread is if their employer has a daughter who is a local belle, that she will grow up and marry some “dude from the East.”

Courtesy of the NYPL.

Engraving of Prince Albert (1819-1861), date unknown.

*~he’s soooo dreamy!~*

Courtesy of the NYPL.

Alexandra, Princess of Wales (1844–1925, later Queen) by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873), 1864.

(Source: bewitching-world)

Amélia, the last queen of Portugal (1865 – 1951), date unknown.

Courtesy of the NYPL.

The Empress Eugénie (1826–1920) by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873), 1854.

Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“The Empress of the French [Eugenie] in her bridal costume,” 1853.

Originally published in The Illustrated London News.

Courtesy of the NYPL.

Penelope by Charles-François Marchal (1825–1877), ca. 1868.

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Emily Bertie Pott by George Romney (1734–1802), 1781.

The mistress of a mysterious Mr. Pott, she accompanied him to India where they both died.

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Oh my god. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

questionableadvice:

“Free from the whims, temperamental crankiness, and unwillingness of the modern domestic servant, Hotpoint Servants are as much revered and appreciated as the old negro mammy, now but a gentle memory to the woman of the South.”*

~ An advertising pamphlet for Hotpoint “Servant” appliances. In the 1920’s “Hotpoint Servants” were being advertised and sold by the General Electric Appliance Company, Inc. Their ‘Breakfast Set’, including toaster and percolator, etc., was a best seller.

* This statement is wrong on so many levels that I’m not even sure where to begin…

via The Toaster Museum Foundation

Madame Grand (Catherine Noele Worlée, 1762–1835), Later Madame Talleyrand-Périgord, Princesse de Bénévent by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), 1783.

Quite possibly my favorite Vigée Le Brun painting :)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“After the Encore,” 1902.

Look at that BEAR!

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Queen Marguerite of Italy, 1880.

Courtesy of the NYPL.