Tea at Trianon: The Transformative Power of Good 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

Thursday, September 13, 2018

The Transformative Power of Good Design

From Chartreuse and Company:

Some houses have an obvious flow. They seem to just tell you where to place the sofa, the dining table. Others, especially period houses, are more demanding. It’s in these challenges that solid vision and design can really strut their stuff. Check out the before and after of this adorable home in downtown Frederick, Maryland. It’s such a fabulous location (walking distance to shops and restaurants, a stone’s throw from Hood College and Baker Park – the IT location in Frederick), but languished on the market as potential buyers struggled to grasp how to live in this charming home. Enter Angelique Hoffman, staging designer extroidinaire. Angelique could feel the the mood the house wanted, and with the help of some cool vintage pieces of her own, as well as finds from Vintage Mid-Century of Frederick and Chartreuse & co, she’s pulled off a facelift, giving this house new life. (Read more.)