Carnival is upon us, with its masks, masques, disguises and dressing-up.



This is just a quick and very easy one ... but who are all these people?

And note it's the person behind the mask, make-up and costume we're after, not the person they might be dressed up to represent. And you'll need to decide whether the picture is from two, twenty or two hundred years ago etc.

I won't post up the names next to the pictures just yet to allow for any late arrivals who might want to have a go themselves, but so far every suggestion has been correct (well I did say it was easy).

So now just waiting for numbers 11 and 12.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


11.


12.


13.


14.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


20.

1. Grace Kelly
4. Agamemnon
17. Prince Charles
18. Frank Sinatra

2. has to be Richard "Ringo" Starkey - the only man it seems who looks even more like himself when he dons a mask.

10. Can't see any mask there but the photo is a famous one - Edward Windsor after having landed his crate on the aircraft carrier Courageous. A relation of mine was one of those lost when that ship was torpedoed and sunk very shortly after the outbreak of war. The sinking was also one of those "officially never happened" events during WWII when the Royal Navy used an Irish port - namely when the Irish allowed the Collingworth to dock and unload survivors and corpses from the attack, I believe it was in Dunmore East.

4 Yes, Schliemann's 'The face of Agamemnon' but he was wrong (again). I can't recall the details just that it's older and unidentified I think.

3 - Our own dear queen?

20. - Liz Taylor?

Oops, sp.

Number 13, a face with warts and all, ergo O. Cromwell.

Number 8, looks like Twiggy.

All correct so far (I did say it was easy).

I won't post up the names next to the pictures just let to allow for any late arrivals who might want to try it themselves.

Is 9. Mia Farrow?

19 - Alexandra Feodorovna?

7. Napoleon Bonaparte

6. Kaiser Bill, the poncy little swine ... (without his batman)

Yup still all correct so far,

While princess Lillibet took the part of Aladdin, Kaiser Bill dressed up as Frederick Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. Meanwhile at the Tsar and Tsarina's 1903 costume ball, the theme was Ivan the Terrible ... complete with original gowns, jewels, tiaras, swords etc all taken from the State Museum, and not just for themselves but for all the other guests too. It's a bit like going to a party as 'Gloriana, the Virgin Queen', having borrowed one of Elizabth's original pearl-studded gowns from the V&A museum and sundry crown jewels from the Tower of London.

14 Audrey Hepburn
15 Louis XIV

16. is Zorro. Really, it is! At least as Antonio Banderas portrayed him.

Thank you for the quiz - even if I have been of line for a bit

No5. Bardot? Using the pout for my guess.

No. 5 is indeed Brigitte Bardot, well done.

... so only 11 and 12 to go.

Is No. 11 El Greco?

11. ......or Ivan the Terrible, even.

11 ... no, he's neither the Greek nor the terrible Russian.

Don't know any answers, but masks would make an interesting thread. Haven't masks as old as 9,000 years been found?

I get 11, now, I think. It's that dance where the costumes caught fire and some twirps died, isn't it? In which case that's the king being rescued by the lassie on the right.

Without searching further (I know you wrote a very good post about this incident ages ago) I'll plump for a Charles but forget the number. Sorry.

EDIT: 12 is an author but I can't remember his name. Is it Gore Vidal or one of that lot?

No. 11 is indeed King Charles VI of France in his slghtly singed woodwose costume pictured just at the point when the Bal des Ardents really hotted up!

No. 12 is "one of that lot", he's actually the host of the famous Black and White Masked Ball, from which I used several other pictures.

Well then, it surely must be Truman Capote. How annoyed he would have been to be mistaken for Gore Vidal.

And thanks for this, MM, as well as your cooking contributions. They're a refuge for the likes of me when daunted by some of the other threads.

No 12 ... Truman Capote it is.

Thanks for all your kind comments, although instead of posting stuff here I should really have been phoning the bank, working on my b&b's website, redecorating a couple of rooms, repairing the fence etc .... but diddling around here is sooo much more interesting.