Tea at Trianon: Rose Uniacke’s Historic London Home

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, November 18, 2021

Rose Uniacke’s Historic London Home

From Architectural Digest:

Rose Uniacke at Home offers an intimate look inside Uniacke’s thoughtful, carefully layered design process over the course of the site’s three-and-a-half-year revamp, for which she also sought out architectural insight from Antwerp designer Vincent Van Duysen and gardening expertise from London landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith.
By first stripping the house down to its rawest form, Uniacke was able to make the most of the home’s immense volume and existing architectural features. From there, the final look came together through a series of enchanting interventions: Canvas walls and a 17th-century Mughal rug in the study, and circa 1900, straw-woven Orkney chairs beside the basement pool—to note just a few examples.
The book, which has been produced in a small run and comes wrapped in lush wool fabric, features ethereal photographs shot by legendary photographer François Halard. His images capture Uniacke’s penchant for understated tranquility, each one highlighting a significant level of humanistic detail. The volume also contains 23 jaw-dropping gatefolds, nearly double the number of a typical book of this size. Uniacke’s rooms look comfortable and lived-in, exuding a sense of warmth that is heightened by the designer’s own words. (Read more.)