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Surprisingly fresh-looking 3rd-century glass goblet with enamelled painting illustrating the myth of hero Achilles’ amorous adventures on the island of Skyros. Unearthed 1991 in excavation on Richard Wagner Strasse, Cologne (Romisch-Germanisches Museum)

Terracotta bas-reliefs on facade of “The House with Animals”, the Trinity Church Apartments, Moscow ~ a unique blend of medieval grotesques with a dash of art nouveau (early 1900s) atlasobscura.com/places/house-w…

Joseph Wright of Derby’s lifelong interest with light effects is reflected in his Landscape with a Rainbow Effect (1794), keeping a sharp eye for subtleties, such as the sky being paler inside the arc of the rainbow than outside derbymuseums.org/collection/jos…

Enjoying contemporary realist painter Rance Jones’s acutely-detailed watercolours ~ Anthem / St James Cathedral, Jerusalem / Yellow rancejonesart.com

Giuseppe Arcimboldo creates an ingenious assemblage of fruit and vegetables to depict Rudolf II, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, as Vertumnus, the Roman god of the seasons, growth, plants & fruit (1591)

Fashionably-attired young man, slightly dishevelled and with mouth full, looks round in alarm ~ an unexpected visitor has arrived! ~ and hastily covers up a half-eaten piece of bread with a book (Pavel Fedotov, The Aristocrat’s Breakfast (1850)

From our archive ~ painter/musician Stuart Dunkel’s vision of a small white mouse triumphant among the raspberries rehs.com/Stuart_Dunkel_…

There are 120 winged angels on the magnificent wooden beamed “angel roof” of medieval St Wendreda’s Church, Cambridgeshire, dating from 1526. Here’s a close-up of one holding a trumpet and, at R, the surreal view from below blosslynspage.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/st-…

W Heath Robinson whimsically observes young children, all wearing sensible hats & spectacles, spending their beach holiday intent on intellectual pursuits ~ geology, maths, birds, fishes, moths & plants (The Intellectual Summer Holiday, 1925) heathrobinsonmuseum.org/collection-ite…

An idyllic sunny picnic setting on the banks of the River Lys, by Belgian realist Emile Claus ~ in the foreground, simply-dressed country folk observe the fashionable, elegant bourgeoisie over the river. This painting was bought by King Léopold II (Le pique-nique, 1887)

Child’s play ~ the mordant humour of cartoonist Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family (1950)

In a bordello, a standing maidservant hands a full glass to the Madam who is plying the unsuspecting young aristocrat with wine (at R), as the cardsharp at L prepares to fleece him by playing his hidden Ace of Diamonds (Georges de la Tour, 1634, Louvre version)

The world in a puddle ~ Sherlock Holmes might immediately deduce that two pedestrians, two motor vehicles & two bicycles have passed by on this boggy woodland track, & that it’s evening (see the pale moon’s reflection in the water?) M C Escher, Puddle (1952)

The 1657 Bill of Mortality setting out causes of death in London includes these oddities: Spotted Feaver & Purples 56 Hang’d & made away ‘emselves 24 Cut of the Stone 3 Blasted & Planet 5 Teeth & worms 878 Stone & Strangury 73 Rising of the Lights 203 babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.…

From Egypt 4,300 years ago, this wooden statue of Mitri, overseer of scribes, sits cross-legged, a roll of papyrus on his lap, pen in his right hand, with the remnants of a painted necklace, & haunting red-veined blue eyes of quartz & rock-crystal (Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza)

Forget all the annoying stuff in the world for a few seconds and enjoy the natural beauty of Brazil’s Seven-coloured Tanager (Tangara fastuosa) Photo: Luiz Cavalcanti Damasceno

Admiring the simple elegance of this 1931 Lalique vase ‘Canards’, which features amber ducks winding upwards on frosted glass. It was designed by Suzanne Lalique-Haviland (daughter of René); her other designs included costumes & stage sets for the Comédie-Française

Fine workmanship in these Byzantine gold bracelets with pearls from 6th century Constantinople (Varna Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria). The pearls are in bunches, resembling grapes on a winding vine colorsandstones.eu/2022/10/25/the…

Just admiring these ancient Egyptian glass tiles featuring beautifully-detailed Nilotic birds (3rd-1st century BC) christies.com/lotfinder/lot_…

Warlpiri artist Alma Nungarrayi Granites lived near the Tanami Desert in Australia’s Northern Territory. Her ‘Seven Sisters Dreaming’ paintings depict the stories of the ancestral sisters who can be found in the night sky in the Pleiades star cluster artsandculture.google.com/story/zoom-int…