M.J. Rose

If this doesn’t inspire you to want to spend a day back in your childhood playing with this, well, we don’t know what would…and by the way, who is this Colleen Moore of old Hollywood who spent a reported half-million dollars on this fairy castle and then sent it on tour to raise money for children’s charities? We like her.

From CBSnews.com,

A Doll House To Dream Of

“It is the ultimate enchanted castle: lush gardens and sumptuous rooms, decorated with precious furniture and priceless art. There are glowing chandeliers and elegant bathrooms. Not bad, for a doll house!

Between 1928 and 1935, Hollywood star Colleen Moore spent a reported half-million dollars on her Fairy Castle, employing some 100 Hollywood designers and craftsmen to build it, and then sent the doll house on tour to raise money for children’s charities.

Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry – home to the Fairy Castle since it was donated in 1949 – has recently renovated it, as one does with a house that is getting on in years….”

For a huge gallery of the dollhouse and more on its history, click here.

This is most certainly a woman with an interesting story. We wonder who she was and what her life was like….

From The Vintage News,

The Lady of Elche: a mysterious artifact found in 1897 on a private estate at La Alcudia, Spain

“The Lady of Elche, also known as Lady of Elx, is a limestone bust of a woman’s head found on a private estate at La Alcudia, two kilometers south of Elche, Spain.

The Iberian artifact is believed to have been produced in the 4th century BC, although the craftsmanship suggests strong Hellenistic influences. It is one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

The sculpture was found on 4 August 1897, by a young worker, Manuel Campello Esclapez. However, local keeper of the records Pere Ibarra had a different version of the discovery: he stated that a man named Antonio Maciá, one of the workers clearing the southeast slope of La Alcudia for agricultural purposes, was the one to find the bust.

The bust measures some 56 centimeters high, and it features the head and shoulders of an elite woman. The complex headdress features two large wheel-like coils known as “rodetes” on either side of the head and face.

The statue was originally polychrome, or painted in vivid colors. Two of the colors have been identified by experts: classic natural vermillion and Egyptian blue.

Who she might have been continues to be a mystery”…

For the rest, and many more photos, click here.

They had me at “shoe ornaments” —

From The Vintage News,

The Hochdorf Chieftain’s Grave – intact and richly furnished grave of an Early Celtic chieftain

“Discovered in 1968 by an amateur archaeologist near Hochdorf an der Enz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and excavated in 1978/79, the Hochdorf Chieftain’s Grave is a richly furnished Celtic burial chamber dating from 530 BC.

It is one of about 100 such graves dating from the second half of the sixth century BC found in France, Switzerland, and Germany.

The man in the grave,who was laid out on a lavishly decorated 9 ft (275 cm) bronze couch on wheels, was about 40 years old and unusually tall for the Iron Ages, being just over 6ft tall. Judging by other objects found there, this man had probably been a Celtic chieftain.

He had been buried with a gold-plated torc on his neck, amber jewelry, a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, a bracelet on his right arm, a nail clipper, a comb, fishing hooks, a flat cone-shaped hat made of birch bark adorned with circle patterns and punched decorations, arrows, a razor knife, and most notably, thin embossed gold plaques were on his now-disintegrated shoes….”

For the rest (many lovely photos), click here.