Tea at Trianon: New Looks for Old China

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

Thursday, April 7, 2016

New Looks for Old China

From Southern Lady:

Do you have a set of  china that you inherited  from a dear relative or registered for years ago but never use because it seems passé? We consulted the experts at Replacements, Ltd., to find the most popular patterns, and then we picked our five favorites to showcase: The Rutledge by Lenox, Noritake’s Colburn pattern, Lenox’s Versailles and Brookdale patterns, and the Runnymede pattern by Wedgwood. We’ll show you how to update those pieces with a little mix-and-match magic. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: Some of the patterns that were introduced in the past 15 or 20 years are out of style today, but the china patterns of the English and French Bone China companies that have been around for 150 to 200 or more years will never go out of style. They are classic.....then there are the authentic china patterns from, well, China!; April 7, 2016 at 7:04:00 AM EDT