Tea at Trianon: Tea & Restoration

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

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Tea & Restoration

From Victoria:

When Lauren Ackerman, co-founder of Ackerman Family Vineyards, was looking for a property in which to promote her acclaimed wines within the Napa city limits, she came upon a nineteenth-century Queen Anne Victorian in need of rescue. When she stepped inside and saw that the home’s original details were still intact, she was immediately smitten and bought it. A massive, five-year restoration followed—interrupted by an earthquake in 2014—but upon completion, this truly magnificent achievement was christened the Ackerman Heritage House. Lauren’s refined touch starts at the front gate, which bears her vineyards’ signature logo: an elegant letter A and a horse (Lauren is an accomplished equestrian) entwined with grape vines. Crumbling concrete steps were replaced with era-correct wooden ones, and the original handrails—found stashed beneath the house—were returned to their rightful place. Lauren used a period-appropriate color palette for exterior paint. (Read more.)