Tea at Trianon: Italian Porcelain

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

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Italian Porcelain

Made for Marie-Antoinette's sister, the Queen of Naples, and soon to be auctioned.

The highlights of the collection are the neo-classical pieces from Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, many of which were created in a spirit of competition with Austria under the patronage of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies and his consort Maria Carolina von Habsburg, sister of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Maria Carolina of Austria married Ferdinand in 1768 and moved from her homeland of Austria to Naples. At the time Austrians were producing beautiful neo-classical porcelain, which also was sent to Naples, so perhaps in a spirit of competition, Maria Carolina and Ferdinand restarted their factory and encouraged porcelain production in the neo-classical style. The resulting works became world-renowned, not in the least when they started serving as diplomatic gifts to the Spanish court and as souvenirs for Lady Hamilton and other English nobility passing through Naples on their Grand Tour.

May said...: This is marvelous! So beautiful and refined. And, of course, made for Marie-Amélie's mother, an added bonus:-); June 23, 2010 at 1:01:00 PM EDT