Tea at Trianon: Schoolteacher’s Coup

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

Friday, March 26, 2021

Schoolteacher’s Coup

From Brownstoner:

Made of brick and stone with a bay and round-arched windows, the 1899 Romanesque Revival/Neo-Renaissance home was neglected but intact when they bought it from an out-of-town relative of the previous occupants, who’d lived there since the 1920s. Although unoccupied, it was completely furnished.

“We crossed out ‘broom swept’ on the contract of sale and told them they could leave anything they wanted, so there was a lot of junk and papers but they left a lot of nice pieces,” said Bob. Finds included a sideboard in the dining room, a library table in the middle parlor, light fixtures and even some jewelry.

The three-story, single-family house has an expansive parlor floor with all manner of woodwork, including a coffered ceiling, and fireplaces with colorful tile spread over its three parlors and library. Upstairs among the bedrooms is a well-preserved bathroom with a skylight, original tile, claw-foot tub and handsome 1910 pedestal sink.

On the garden floor is a well-appointed dining room with paneling and a built-in sideboard. The kitchen, in the rear overlooking the garden, was little changed when they first saw it, with a built-in dish cupboard and a row of deep soapstone laundry sinks. As most Brooklyn row houses of its era have, out back was a shed with a dubious foundation and a tiny room with a toilet but no sink. “It was really literally a dirty hole,” Elaine said. (Read more.)