'Rasoir National' = the guillotine. There are a lot of repro plates like this around - and others which have simply been made the same for many...
Here's the original illustration - the painting is just a rather poor copy of Frederick Barnard's illustration for Dicken's "David Copperfield"....
I'm sure you could buy new sewing cotton. 12000 yards of it here:...
'Madame' in French is plain old 'Mrs.". No dames involved. 'Dame' in Britain is a title - female equivalent of a knighthood. (Or a funny old...
"Sugar Tongs" in Britain, not 'nips'. Used for picking up sugarlumps (sugar cubes). They would usually have spoon-like ends, though. These look...
This was during the heyday of the diamond mines at Kimberley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape £6000-worth of diamonds was...
Here's a picture of the "Norseman" which was owned by the Union Line of Southampton which later combined with the Castle Line to become...
Separate names with a comma.