Tea at Trianon: Uranium Glassware

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, April 20, 2023

Uranium Glassware

From Lancaster Online:

Geiger counters will click if you point them at this glass. There’s actual uranium in there — specifically, in most cases, uranium oxide. The amount varies by piece. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said there’s no danger to handling it. Lately the glass has been hot, says shop owner Connie Anderson.
“That’s been going on for the last 60 to 90 days,” she says. “Country Living always puts out its ‘most desirable collectibles’ and whatever they put on there (uranium glass, recently) is what people come in here looking for.”
Some vendors put black lights on their displays. “It glows neon green with purple in it,” she says. “It’s really cool to look at.”
Railroad items also draw shoppers. They’re a specialty of one of her vendors.“These are full-scale, big commercial railroad items like bells and lights,” Anderson says, adding they seem to be headed for an increasing number of homes. (Read more.)