Fake chairs in high places (revisited)

After a seven-year investigation, the French antique furniture expert Bill Pallot ("Père Lachaise" ) has finally been indicted for his part in a multi-million euro scam involving the sale of fake Louis XVI chairs to (among other victims) the Palace of Versailles.

Museum of the Archives Nationales (article)

The France Today website publishes an interesting article in its "Carnet de Voyage" series on the museum of the Archives Nationales, its permanent displays and the current exhibition on the Royal family at the Tuileries. 

New book on Liotard

Liotard: A Portrait of Eighteenth-Century Europe by Christopher Baker, the new editor of The Burlington Magazine, is published on 27th November. 

Napoleon hat fetches record price

The latest of Napoleon's hats to be auctioned has broken all the records by selling for €1.9 million.

Self-help for the French nobility

 Who says the French aristocracy was abolished two-hundred years ago?  An illuminating post by Jennifer Walker on the Messy Nessy blog concerns the splendid Association for the Mutual Assistance of the French Nobility, which currently boasts 5,300 members.

Dan Snow Ridley Scott interview (podcast)

Having been told by Ridley Scott to "get a life", Dan Snow has managed to score an interview with the great director for his History Hits podcasts (14th November)

Liotard at the National Gallery

 The National Gallery is mounting an exhibition on the Swiss pastellist Jean-Etienne Liotard's masterpiece "The Lavergne Family Breakfast", which it acquired in 2019.  The exhibition will run from 16th November 2023 – 3rd March 2024.

Revolutionary violence (article)

In a news item from Binghamton University, NY State, Professor Howard G. Brown discusses his research into how images of mass violence shaped identities across French history. 

Love letters - lost and found

 Cambridge historian Renaud Morieux has published a study of over 100 personal letters to French sailors, dating from 1757-58,  which he uncovered at the National Archives in Kew.  The messages were seized by Britain’s Royal Navy during the Seven Years’ War, taken to the Admiralty in London and never opened. 

Academy of Painting - new database

 The DFK  (Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte) in Paris has published a free-to-use online database of the collections of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.

The Bourbons of India

The Sun newspaper features an article on an unlikely pretender to the French crown, the splendidly named Indian lawyer, Balthazar Napoleon IV de Bourbon.

Regency exhibition - Musée Carnavalet

A new exhibition The Regency in Paris (1715-1723) has opened at the Musée Carnavalet to mark the  300th anniversary of death of the Regent.  It runs from 24th October 2023 to 25th February 2024 and features over 200 works from public and private collections.