Tea at Trianon: A Cottage in New Orleans

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, January 23, 2009

A Cottage in New Orleans

This enchanting 1833 cottage was built and owned by a free woman of African descent, according to Style Court, which says:

The trend in the Crescent City has always been to add a little unexpected elegance to even the most humble cottages. Although it's not really visible in the pictures shown here, this house has a Greek key door surround. (Greek Revival style is very prevalent in NOLA.)

Lucy said...: I find that Greek Key transforms any structure or decoration by becoming the defining element itself. Like on this cottage door for example, we can't just say that it's adorned with a Greek Key; it does it more justice to say that it is a Greek Key door- I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the statement it makes- such presence. I love this so much that I had my entrance mirror, which is rose colour, engraved with Greek Key- it has totally transformed my entrance. Thanks, Elena.; January 23, 2009 at 10:46:00 AM EST