Certosa di San Martino

Founded as a Carthusian monastery in the 14th century, and restored to Neapolitan baroque style in the 17th century, the Certosa di San Martino is currently a museum in Naples, Italy. The sheer meticulousness in the abundant details is astounding...

And how amazing are the marble skull sculptures...

Via here, here, here and here

Jack's Camp, Botswana

This is one of my ultimate dream-destinations: Jack's Tented Camp in Botswana. Situated in the Makgadikgadi Pans, which was once the largest inland sea in Africa, Jack's Camp is quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Fodor's describes it as follows:

If you're bold-spirited, reasonably fit, and have kept your childlike sense of wonder, then Jack's is for you. A cross between a Fellini movie, a Salvador Dalí painting, and Alice in Wonderland, this camp doesn't offer the cocooned luxury of some of the Okavango camps; it offers a more rugged, pioneer feel reminiscent of a 1940s-style safari...

Anton Seder

Oddly enough, I am unable to find any literature about Anton Seder (1850 - 1916), except for the fact that he was a botanical artist in the Art Nouveau period, and lived and worked in Germany. If there are any Seder-philes out there, I would love to hear from you...

Via here and here

Scientific Illustration

Long before X-rays were X-rays and daguerreotypes were de rigueur, academia had drawings. Simple, line-dominated dissections of fauna and flora; art meant more for learning than decoration. I could pore over every minute detail for hours...

Death’s Head Sphinx Moth

From: ‘A Monograph of Oriental Cicadidæ’ By W.L. Distant

Drawing of a retinal neuron by Ramón y Cajal

Sequoia sempervirens
From ‘Hooker’s Icones Plantarum’ vol. 4: t. 379 (1841)

From Text Book of Mycology and Plant Pathology,  John W. Harshberger

olio-ataxia: Phytological History 1673 Nehemiah Grew

Pelagia Cyanella, William Keith Brooks, 1910

Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life. Catherine C. Hopley, 1882.

‘Anatomia del corpo humano’ - Rome, 1559
Juan Valverde d'Amusco

Snake Skeleton, A. Duméril, 1834

Metacrinus Cingulatus
From the 'Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger (1873-76)

Skeleton in Giovard Bidloo’s Ontleding des menschelyken lichaams
 (Gerard de Lairesse)

All images found via Scientific Illustration

Not your average soap

Sweet Petula have trumped most in terms of their packaging. I would find these soaps practically impossible to unwrap and use...

Initially via here; images via here and Sweet Petula