Impromptu Shakespeare

The 'Beetle Wing Dress', which Ellen Terry wore to play Lady Macbeth, is one of the all-time greatest pieces of costume design. It's unbelievably beautiful. By contrast, the rest of the cast were dressed more plainly. Oscar Wilde wrote: "Lady Macbeth seems to be an economical housekeeper and evidently patronises local industries for her husband's clothes and servant's liveries, but she takes care to do all her own shopping in Byzantium."

There was a period of several decades in the mid 15th century when the Flemish bookmakers produced books with the vellum dyed black, which could only be inscribed with gold or silver ink. This one is called "The Black Hours", from the Morgan Library in New York.