A short historical article on the umbrella and parasol, tracing their use from ancient Assyria, Greece and Rome through medieval hooded capes and cloaks to the practical umbrella in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and England. It covers materials such as linen, taffeta, oiled silk and whalebone frames, and social attitudes toward carrying umbrellas. An editor's note summarizes Charles de Linas's 1884 study of umbrellas in antiquity. Illustrated with an engraving of Queen Marie Thérèse with a parasol, a Roman marble, an Apulian vase detail and a sketch of Dr. Alexander Wood of Edinburgh.

Georges Seligman presents a translated inventory of the wardrobe of Marie Anne de Bourbon, Princess of Condé, taken after her death in 1720. It lists linen, lace-trimmed garments, gowns, cloaks, petticoats, sashes, tippets, headdresses and sleeves with their appraised prices in livres, covering rooms at the Hôtel de Condé and the Tuileries. Footnotes explain terms such as Saint Maur reps and gros de Tours, and a short closing commentary remarks on the scarcity of linen, handkerchiefs and stockings. Illustrations include a portrait of the princess, a band of French needlepoint, and a print of the Hôtel de Condé garden.