Tea at Trianon: The Joys of Stationery

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 17, 2008

The Joys of Stationery

Victoria Thorne discusses the lost art of sending and receiving letters and invitations~ in paper envelopes. To quote Mrs. Thorne:

Although an incredible number of invitations and notes are sent on the internet, it's still the siren call of stationery--real paper, real envelopes, real stamps, real ink in a real pen--that gets to a lot of us. Maybe it's the retro joy of opening the mailbox and finding real correspondence.

Maybe it's the pure art of it, when it is well done: the thrill that comes when one receives their own little bit of thoughtful beauty in an envelope.

Linda said...: Sorry about that truncated comment. I do understand the joys of stationery, and miss it. But it is also possible nowadays to create your own beautiful invitation via email. It is true that receiving it is not the same as opening an envelope and holding the invitation in your hands. But with a stamp now costing practically half a dollar, I try to create an invitation that I can send out via email, usually with a beautiful painting, and a nicer font and color for the text.; October 20, 2008 at 10:48:00 AM EDT