All posts tagged: pair

Rare Pair of 16th-Century Ming Dynasty Jars Hammers for .5 M

Rare Pair of 16th-Century Ming Dynasty Jars Hammers for $12.5 M

On Wednesday in London, Sotheby’s sold a pair of rare 16th-century Ming Dynasty Chinese jars decorated with orange fish for $12.5 million, blowing the house’s $1 million high estimate out of the water. Ten collectors, most of whom competed by phone, were locked in a 20-minute bidding battle for the jars, which appeared in an auction of Chinese art. They eventually sold to a private Asian collector. The result, which is the first ever auction appearance of a complete pair of such “fish jars” with covers, also marks the highest priced Chinese artwork sold at auction worldwide this year. The porcelain jars were part of a German family collection for more than a century before going under the hammer today. Only one example of similar jars with covers is known to exist in a pair, and they’re held in the Musée Guimet in Paris. What’s more, only three other single jars in private hands are known to have kept their original covers. “From the moment our catalogue was published, the response from collectors to this …

UK Exhibition to Pair Pre-Raphaelite Art and Aromas

UK Exhibition to Pair Pre-Raphaelite Art and Aromas

    An upcoming Pre-Raphaelite art exhibition aims to explore—and creatively enhance—the sensory aura of the paintings associated with the movement. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham recently announced Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, an interactive multisensory display of 19th-century artworks and their corresponding aromas. The exhibition opens on October 11 and runs through January 26, 2025.   Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites A Saint of the Eastern Church by Simeon Solomon, 1867-68. Source: Birmingham Museums Trust.   Art can tell stories, evoke emotion, and suggest sensation. In its obsessive attention to detail, Pre-Raphaelite art was especially preoccupied with exploring the five senses. Many of the movement’s masterworks visually imply certain fragrances, from rain-soaked earth to burning incense. Visitors to Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites won’t have to rely on their imaginations to conjure these specific scents. Rather, with the press of a button, they can actually experience a painting’s scent by activating a nearby diffuser.   The Barber Institute collaborated with “storytelling art curators” …

Dyson OnTrac Headphones Review: A Solid, Visually Customizable Pair

Dyson OnTrac Headphones Review: A Solid, Visually Customizable Pair

The first Dyson headphones, the Zone (4/10, WIRED Review), with their attachable air filter for cynical techno-futurists, were so ridiculous and stupid it was hard for me to take the company seriously. Let’s face it: Dyson’s vacuums and hair care products are very nice, but many of its other products have been feeble, design-forward gimmicks that quickly fade behind the media hype. Sure, you’d see a few “fanless” Dyson air movers or purifiers in luxe locales after they first came out, but they never reached the broad-market ubiquity of its shiny plastic-sucking machines. All this to say: I had low expectations for the new, $499 Dyson OnTrac headphones. With everyone from established brands like Apple, Sony, and Bose to newer brands like Sonos at the peak of their noise-canceling headphone game, it was just hard to imagine Dyson could create a product that competes in anything other than extruded plastic styling. But after a few weeks with my review unit, I think they’re some of the better headphones in the market. These are visually customizable …

‘Dine and dash’ pair who left restaurants without paying bills worth £1,000 are jailed | UK News

‘Dine and dash’ pair who left restaurants without paying bills worth £1,000 are jailed | UK News

A couple who left a number of restaurants in the South Wales area without paying bills totalling more than £1,000 have been jailed. Ann McDonagh, 39, and Bernard McDonagh, 41, previously pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud. Ann McDonagh also admitted four counts of theft and one count of obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of duty. The pair, from the Sandfields area of Port Talbot, were sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday. She was handed a 12-month prison sentence, while he was jailed for eight months. Newly-opened restaurant Bella Ciao in Swansea alleged in a Facebook post that a family left the premises without paying their £329 bill. The post was shared thousands of times on social media. Several other restaurants in the South Wales area also posted about similar experiences, including River House and La Casona. A previous court hearing heard the unpaid bills totalled £1,168.10 across five restaurants. Image: Ann McDonagh ‘Most expensive items on the menu’ Judge Paul Thomas KC said the defendants had “set out on …

Hazelnuts, truffles, or chocolate: what to pair with … Italian Alpine beer | A taste of Piedmont and Alpine Italy

Hazelnuts, truffles, or chocolate: what to pair with … Italian Alpine beer | A taste of Piedmont and Alpine Italy

The Italians have been drinking Menabrea beer since before they were Italians. The first cask was brewed and sold by Giuseppe Menabrea in 1846 – a good 15 years before the foundation of the unified Italian state. And he would still recognise his brewery today – now in the fifth generation of his family – nestled at the foot of the Alps in the picturesque northern Italian town of Biella, in the Piedmont region. With the distinction of being the oldest continuously produced beer in Italy, Menabrea stands for continuity, quality, tradition and flavour. Its flagship Birra Bionda (pale lager) is still made to the original recipe: pure, soft water; barley malt; hops; brewer’s maize, giving the beer its rich golden colour; and a bottom-fermenting yeast – the type Menabrea used in his original casks. Menabrea is typical of the Italian Alpine beer style: fresh, with citrus and Alpine flower notes to begin with, underpinned by a solid base of malt and hops that give it a nutty, earthy flavour redolent of the forest floor. …

‘Dine and dash’ pair left restaurants without paying bills worth £1,000 | UK News

‘Dine and dash’ pair left restaurants without paying bills worth £1,000 | UK News

Two people have admitted leaving several restaurants without paying bills worth more than £1,000. Ann McDonagh, 39, and Bernard McDonagh, 41, of the Sandfields area of Neath Port Talbot, both appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning. They pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining services dishonestly under the 2006 Fraud Act. Newly-opened restaurant Bella Ciao in Swansea alleged in a Facebook post that a family left the premises without paying their £329 bill. The post was shared thousands of times on social media. Several other restaurants in the South Wales area also posted about similar experiences, including River House and La Casona. The unpaid bills totalled £1,168.10 across five restaurants. Image: Pic: Rowan Griffiths/Daily Mirror Ann McDonagh also admitted four counts of theft. These related to the theft of £126.60 worth of items from Tesco Extra in Swansea, two incidents at Tommy Hilfiger in Bridgend’s designer outlet totalling £491 and the theft of items worth £400 from Sainsbury’s. She also pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing or resisting a constable in the …

Exmoor Zoo welcomes pair of world’s smallest foxes | UK News

Exmoor Zoo welcomes pair of world’s smallest foxes | UK News

A pair of the world’s smallest foxes have recently arrived at a zoo in Devon. The fennec foxes have their own purpose-built enclosure at Exmoor Zoo – a new arrival two years in the planning. The breed is native to areas of North Africa, including Morocco, the Sahara Desert and Mauritania. As nocturnal animals, fennec foxes live in underground burrows in the desert, which allows them to keep cool. Their characteristic large ears also help to dispel heat. Otherwise known as the desert fox, their prey includes small rodents, snakes, lizards and insects such as grasshoppers and locusts. But they also eat eggs, roots, leaves and fruit. Danny Reynolds, co-partner of Exmoor Zoo, said: “We’re all pretty excited about the fennec foxes’ arrival and are falling madly in love.” Read more from Sky News:Family of boy killed in sword attack issue statementAbout 31,000 properties without water The keepers have started calling the furry new arrivals Lieutenant Wolfe and Pretty Lady. But people are asked to get in touch with the zoo to share their own …

Gemma Atkinson’s daughter Mia is all grown up as the pair send adorable message to Gorka Marquez

Gemma Atkinson’s daughter Mia is all grown up as the pair send adorable message to Gorka Marquez

Gemma Atkinson surprised her followers on Friday when she showed the sweet way that she keeps her fiancé Gorka Marquez close while he’s working away. The former Strictly star, 39, shared a snapshot of herself and her lookalike daughter Mia, four, as the pair snuggled up in bed next to a pillow printed with Gorka and their baby son Thiago’s faces.  © Gemma AtkinsonGemma shared the hilarious post on her Instagram Stories Gemma looked fresh-faced for the photo wearing a pair of black satin pyjamas and a gold pendant necklace, while Mia looked adorable in a purple Disney T-shirt with a gingham bow in her hair.  Gorka, 33, has been spending time away from home as he travels the country for the Strictly Come Dancing The Professionals UK tour, which officially began on Wednesday 1 May. The dancer has been making some big career moves in recent months, after he spent time in his home country earlier this year to appear as a judge on the Spanish version of Strictly.  © Gorka MarquezGorka was all smiles with …

A pair of Airbnb alums is bringing intelligence and automation to data protection

A pair of Airbnb alums is bringing intelligence and automation to data protection

When Julie Trias and Elizabeth Nammour were working together at Airbnb on the company’s data team, they had to deal with data spread across a variety of sources, and that growing sprawl led to challenges in keeping data safe. The founders’ own frustration with the existing crop of data protection options motivated them to launch a company and build the automated data protection tool they wanted. On Tuesday, that startup, Teleskope, announced a $5 million seed investment. “We tested a bunch of different tools to help us understand, protect, delete and redact data at Airbnb, but what we came to realize is that there wasn’t that tool that could help developers do this automatically,” Trias told TechCrunch. That’s not to say there were no solutions, but the ones that existed like data classification tools generated a lot of false positives and had scaling issues. “There wasn’t a tool that could help you go from detection to actual remediation, which is redacting the data, isolating the data, or taking any sort of action on the data.” …