Tea at Trianon: The Language of Design

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, October 30, 2017

The Language of Design

From Victoria:

A careful and skilled design plan requires a lot of heavy lifting at the beginning, where we are collaborating and creating the vision. It is crucial to develop a scaled design plan with elevations and space allocations in order to paint the picture of my vision for a client. It’s definitely a process, but worth the extra time and effort to get the proportions of furniture correct the first time. I always tell my clients: “People notice what’s wrong before they notice what’s right.” From there, we source the right furnishings and build products that combine form and function, specifically for their lifestyle. Then the ordering process begins. I remind them that we are in their circle of support so they can get back to doing what they do best—their 9-to-5 and spending time with family. (Read more.)