"Every thing was to be à la Quifferiquimini"

Jean-JacquesLequeu (1757-1826), Intérieur de l'habitation à l'égyptienne et la salle de Morphée, na Gallica.

The King and his three Daughters

(...)

While the nation was in this distracted situation, there arrived the prince of Quifferiquimini, who would have been the most accomplished hero of the age, if he had not been dead, and had spoken any language but the Egyptian, and had not had three legs. Notwithstanding these blemishes, the eyes of the whole nation were immediately turned upon him, and each party wished to see him married to the princess whose cause they espoused.

The old king received him with the most distinguished honours; the senate made the most fulsome addresses to him; the princesses were so taken with him, that they grew more bitter enemies than ever; and the court ladies and petit-maitres invented a thousand new fashions upon his account—every thing was to be à la Quifferiquimini. Both men and women of fashion left off rouge to look the more cadaverous; their cloaths were embroidered with hieroglyphics, and all the ugly characters they could gather from Egyptian antiquities, with which they were forced to be contented, it being impossible to learn a language that is lost; and all tables, chairs, stools, cabinets and couches, were made with only three legs; the last, howver, soon went out of fashion, as being very inconvenient.

Horace Walpole (1717-1797), Hieroglyphic Tales, 1785. Excerto da edição "online" do Project Gutenberg, no "site" Infomotions. Entre as muitas edições "online", poder-se-á encontrar uma edição deste conto em formato pdf, descarregável ("download") para o computador pessoal. A Description de l'Egypte encontra-se, há muito, na barra de "links" ("Links, textos online, investigação") do "blog" de "A Arte Moderna".