Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette in Advertising

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

Monday, June 24, 2013

Marie-Antoinette in Advertising

For all the fuss about Marie-Antoinette's expenditures, she has been making money for other people from the moment she first stepped on French soil. Anna has an excellent post about how the image of Marie-Antoinette has been used in advertising, even during her lifetime. To quote:

In one sense, Marie Antoinette has been used in advertising since her ascendant as the pivotal star of Versailles--fashion plates and even dolls bearing her likeness were not just demonstrations of the sumptuousness of the crown's wealth or a record of the Queen's appearance, but a figurative, flashing "Buy Me!" sign to all of the fashionable ladies who could afford to aspire to their sovereign's wardrobe choices.

By the time of the queen's death in 1793, however, her status as a walking billboard for the pricey marchande de modes had long since ended. But her death has not stopped her--or her story--from being used in advertisements that market everything from Victorian-era medicines to chocolates and even highlighter pens.

Marie Antoinette, like many historical figures, featured heavily on many 19th and 20th century advertisement cards. These cards were usually either printed as postcards or trading cards--both a potential way to advertise their product to the masses. (Read entire.)