Dear List,
I'll add one sample of a bow-tie,
just in case Gradus wore one instead of a
more common brown/red striped one. His tie was mentioned on note to line 949, page 277, EL:
..." an Easter gift from a dressy butcher,his brother -in-law
in Onhava: imitation silk, color chocolate brown, barred with
red".
As posted several weeks ago ( while discussing
Nabokov's ties) I found out that in Russian, a butterfly-tie or
Babochka, got its name from "Baba", old hag, since
there butterflies were associated with witches.
Here I also include the quote from a site
where I found the description of the "Vanessa atalanta" as displaying
a "chocolate/brown color" :
"The Red Admiral is mainly a dark chocolate
brown/black. There are red/orange bands and white markings. I class it as one of
the "big and brown" butterflies that visit Buddleia." Cf. Linda Walls, in a
site at the internet that carries her sightings of the Red Admiral in the
English countryside.