Tea at Trianon: Auction

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, November 22, 2014

Auction

From Vive la Reine: "A poster announcing the auction of furniture from the estate of the Petit Trianon, authorized by the act of June 10th, 1793." Share

3 comments:

lara77 said...: What the French Republic(s) ALWAYS did best; selling off and destroying a nation's legacy. The First Republic destroying Versailles and the Third Republic selling off the Crown Jewels and destroying the Tuileries Palace. Barbarians and fanatics in action.; November 24, 2014 at 8:43:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: It's amazing they got any of it back!; November 24, 2014 at 8:50:00 AM EST
lara77 said...: You are right! There is also some delicious satisfaction in knowing that the republic spends millions to bring back the treasures sold at a pittance centuries ago!; November 24, 2014 at 10:51:00 AM EST