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| Hairpin with flowers China 17th-18th century gold, rubies, sapphires, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Hairpin with phoenix China 17th-18th century gold, silver, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Crab-shaped Hair-ornament China 17th-18th century gold, almandine, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"There is a species of skepticism, antecedent to all study and philosophy, which is much inculcated by Descartes and others, as a sovereign preservative against error and precipitate judgment. It recommends an universal doubt, not only of all our former opinions and principles, but also of our very faculties; of whose veracity, say they, we must assure ourselves, by a chain of reasoning, deduced from some original principle, which cannot possibly be fallacious or deceitful. But neither is there any such original principle, which has a prerogative above others, that are self-evident and convincing: Or if there were, could we advance a step beyond it, but by the use of those very faculties, of which we are supposed to be already diffident. The Cartesian doubt, therefore, were it ever possible to be attained by any human creature (as it plainly is not) would be entirely incurable; and no reasoning could ever bring us to a state of assurance and conviction upon any subject."
– from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (1748)
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| Flower-shaped Hair-ornament China 17th-18th century gold, ruby Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Phoenix-shaped Hair-ornament China 17th-18th century gold, pearl, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Phoenix-shaped Hair-ornament China 17th-18th century gold, ruby, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Hairpin with calligraphy China 17th-18th century gold, rubies, tourmalines, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Hairpin with landscape China 17th century gold, silver, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Hairpin with pots of flowers China 18th century gold, silver, pearls, enamel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Earrings with phoenixes China 17th-18th century gold Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Basket-shaped Box China ca. 1740-60 silver Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Fan China ca. 1830-50 watercolor on paper, carved mother-of-pearl sticks Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Fan China 1870s gouache on paper, carved mother-of-pearl sticks Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Fan China ca. 1830-50 enameled silver Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |