Tea at Trianon: Stuart Fashions

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

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Stuart Fashions

From the Royal Collection Trust:

In the Tudor and Stuart periods, even armour followed fashion. The ornate set belonging to the 13-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales (c.1607) was designed to echo the full breeches and V-shaped doublets of the day. The armour was a gift from a French nobleman and a statement of great extravagance, particularly since the young Prince would soon have outgrown it. Heir to the English and Scottish thrones, Henry died of typhoid fever at the age of 18, and his younger brother succeeded him as the ill-fated Charles I.

Other works on display include a gold and diamond signet ring given to a young Henrietta Maria Queen by her husband Charles I in around 1628, three years after their marriage, and Mary II’s patch box made of enamelled gold set with diamonds. In the 17th century, black fabric patches were stuck to the face to emphasise the creamy white skin of the leisured class and to conceal blemishes. They were applied using saliva or adhesive and produced in a variety of shapes, from crescents and flowers to animals. (Read entire article.)