Tea at Trianon: Traditions of Silver

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

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Traditions of Silver

From Southern Lady:

The year was 1975, and Atlanta mom Beverly Bremer was in need of a way to provide for her three children. Looking to sell her set of Reed & Barton Francis I silver, she headed to a local pawnshop, where they didn’t recognize the pattern and said they would pay for the metal’s melted-down value. “That’s crazy,” Beverly told them. “That’s a very popular pattern. I know people who would love it.” The shop owners suggested she go find those people instead, and that’s exactly what she did. Her venture evolved into Beverly Bremer Silver Shop, an internationally acclaimed boutique that has made a name for itself as the place to find all things sterling. The shop touts an abundance of discontinued classics as well as a steady stream of rare acquisitions. “If you’ve inherited something, chances are we have more of it,” says Mimi Bremer Woodruff, Beverly’s daughter, who now runs the shop. (Read more.)