Tea at Trianon: An Eclectic, Imaginative World

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, April 12, 2021

An Eclectic, Imaginative World

From W Magazine:

Anyone who needs some guidance on that front can now turn to Beata Heuman: Every Room Should Sing, out today from Rizzoli, to explore ten of Heuman’s projects, from her own elegant townhouse to a writer’s jewel-like pied-à-terre. As much as the book is a record of some of Heuman’s most dazzling interiors, it is really a treatise about how to create a practical space that also feels individual and alive, no matter the budget or square footage. “You get so much more joy and fulfillment from your home when you connect with it on a personal level,” she says.
Growing up in the countryside in Sweden, Heuman wasn’t really aware that becoming an interior designer was an option. “Hiring an interior designer is highly unusual—people are really into doing it yourself,” she says. (But there were hints of her future career there: As a child, she did constantly rearrange her room “to various degrees of success.”) In her early 20s, she moved to London, where a friend introduced her to Nicky Haslam, the decorator and man-about-town. She worked for Haslam’s design studio for nine years, absorbing his unique combination of refinement and irreverence like a sponge. While Haslam is known for his high-society clientele, Heuman notes that there’s a cheeky side to his work that many don’t fully appreciate: In the book, she tells the story of how he once became enamored with a piece of oxblood-red sandpaper they found on the floor, which he then decided to use as a wall covering in a stately home, overlaying the humble material with leather panels. “I love doing things that are a bit unexpected, and not necessarily considered the ‘right’ thing,” Heuman says. “I love taking some risks in that regard. He really showed me how to do that.” (Read more.)