Tea at Trianon: Emeralds

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, January 7, 2022

Emeralds

From Daily Art Magazine:

Though more gold than emerald, the crown of the Andes is a notable example of emerald artifacts because of its fascinating origins — the crown came into existence as a result of a community offering. When smallpox plagued the Americas around the year 1590, a small community of people in Popyán, Colombia were persuaded by their local priest to stay and pray to the Virgin Mother for protection. The people of Popyán were spared from the plague and the grateful community donated the gold and the emeralds to create this beautiful crown to honor the Virgin Mary. The largest emerald in the crown weighs 45 carats and the crown was last estimated at $2.5 million. It is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (Read more.)