Bohemia Volume 2: Vltava (page 2/2)

Front Cover, Bohemia Part Two

The front cover is red cloth with black, grey, and gold foil designs stamped or printed into it. There’s a depiction of a triumpal arch with symbols of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) and a [...] [more...] [$]

Title Page, Bohemia Part Two

The title page shows some foxing, usually caused by iron or other minerals in the paper reacting with moisture making rust, or in some cases mold or mildew. [more...] [$]

Battle in the Sacred Linden Groves

Rušení posvŕtných hájů lípových, or, Disruption of sacred linden groves. [more...] [$]

Initial letter V with a mermaid

She’s a naked woman from head to knee, but then her legs become a twisted knotted tail with fins at the bottom.

This mermaid is wearing a wreath or headdress of roses, a garland symbolising romance or seduction perhaps, holding up perhaps water-lilies, and is [more...] [$]

Initial letter capital V with mountain rescue

A curly-haired young man cradles a barefoot child in one arm as he hangs on to a branch, standing on rocks on a cliff-face. Above him, nestled inside a letter “V”, a large bird, i think an eagle.

Or is it a stork’s nest, delivering a baby, and does that explain the youth’s eager smile?

The decorated (historiated) initial is signed A LEWÝ, whish is probably Antonín Josef Lewý (1845–1897).

This is a vignetted intial (because the picture gous outside the letter) and an inhabited initial (it has people in it) and a historiated initial (it [more...] [$]

Helmsman on a Vltava steamer

A man with a moustache is wearing a flat cap, a billowing jacket and button-up waistcoat, and has his hands on a horizontal wheel at the stern of a ship. There are various objects on the deck near him, including a tall mug and a round basket. He seems to be concentrating, or perhaps remembering a sad occasion, and [...] [more...] [$]