Christmas at Vaux-le-Vicomte

 This week, The Earful Tower podcast (hosted Australian expat Oliver Gee), focuses on Christmas at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, home to a magnificent (and loosely period) festive extravaganza known as "Le Grand Noël". 

Madame du Châtelet - new online resource

The Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists at Paderborn University, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ruth E. Hagengrubern, launches its historical and critical digital edition of Émilie Du Châtelet’s Institutions de Physique (17th December).

Gouverneur Morris

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia publishes a podcast devoted to The Life and Constitutional Legacy of Gouverneur Morris (12th December 2024)

A Voltaire bibliography

In a post of 6th December on the Voltaire Foundation blog, Síofra Pierse, Head of Languages at  University College Dublin, comments on her new work Voltaire: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works.

Largillière's "Monument Men" portrait

A portrait  by Nicolas de Largillière, which formerly belonged to Henri Rothschild, was sold by Christie's Paris on 21st November for a record €529,200 - ten times more than the original estimate.

Science Museum - Versailles exhibition

This season's major event at the Science Museum in South Kensington is an exhibition on Versailles!  Versailles: Science and Splendour runs from 12th December 2024 to 21st April 2025.

Essays in honour of Nicholas Cronk

Liverpool University Press announces the publication on 29th November of a festschrift in honour of Nicholas Cronk, Director of the Voltaire Foundation, Professor of European Enlightenment Studies, and Fellow of St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford. 

Guérin's Robespierre to be auctioned

On 26th November Millon, Paris, is to auction several notable portrait drawings by Jean-Urbain Guérin. of notable French Revolutionaries.  Included is the original for the well-known engraving of Robespierre made by Freissinger for the collection of 22 deputies to the National Assembly in 1789.

Exhibition on French wallpaper

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum is holding an exhibition on The Art of French Wallpaper Design, from 16th November to 11th May 2025.  

Glorious French Revolution? (play)

 A new play, The Glorious French Revolution (or why it sometimes takes a guillotine to get anything done),  opens at the New Diorama Theatre to generally positive reviews.

For sale - THE diamond necklace.

All eyes will be on Sotheby's Geneva this November, when a necklace, thought to contain diamonds from the scandalous diamond necklace of 1784, comes under the hammer. 

"Exceptional" Christies sale

Christies have announced the highlights of their ninth "Exceptional sale" which will take place on 20th November.