Tea at Trianon: A Historic Colonial Williamsburg 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

Monday, January 16, 2023

A Historic Colonial Williamsburg Home

From Veranda:

The first time I walked in, I felt at home, as if I was always meant to decorate this house. I love old houses—I grew up in one built in the 1830s, which is old, but not as old as the Nelson-Galt House, circa 1695. I pinch myself that this is where my husband and I get to live for two years, thanks to the incredible opportunity to serve as the Williamsburg Designer in Residence.

Being invited, and trusted, to reimagine and decorate one of the nation’s oldest frame homes is truly the coolest project I’ve ever been part of, especially because it’s been a family affair. I grew up not far from here in Martinsville, Virginia. My 87-year-old father apprenticed at Williamsburg just before college and once built me a dollhouse influenced by these early American homes—imagine cedar shake and Chippendale railings. My mother needlepointed the rugs. Growing up I didn’t know anything else. The Nelson-Galt House, a simple white frame beauty with a gabled roof and classic dormers, is believed to be the oldest residential dwelling in Colonial Williamsburg and belonged to one family for some 200 years. One of its owners was Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Not much has been updated, so I was working with a blank slate, more or less, with lots of stipulations given the historic easements. For instance, no nails in the walls unless a curator places them, no changes to the original structure and woodwork. The gorgeous paneling couldn’t be caulked or modified in any way, only painted. It was truly a decoration project but one in which I was decorating great bones. The home’s craftsmanship is astonishing. I often encourage clients to splurge on one or two rim locks, and this house has them on every door! (Read more.)