Tea at Trianon: House Tour in Oslo

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

Sunday, January 9, 2022

House Tour in Oslo

From Vogue Australia:

The pandemic made many people rethink the space in which they live. Interior designer Hanne Gathe, cofounder and design director at Gathe + Gram, was one of these people. “During lockdown, we got so sick of our old apartment and decided to put it on the market”, remembers Gathe. A few months later, she moved into her new home with her partner, Carl, and dog, Brinkley. “It was so run down and had not been touched since 1987,” she confesses. What made her fall in love with this apartment, however, were the large rooms, great location in the residential area of Frogner on the west side of Oslo, leafy trees outside the windows, perfect layout and great potential. (Read more.)