Tea at Trianon: Buttons with Miniature Portraits of French Royal Family

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, May 21, 2023

Buttons with Miniature Portraits of French Royal Family

Marie-Thérèse of Savoy was the wife of Artois (Charles X). From Invaluable:

The miniatures inverted-glazed silver frames set with paste stones, with eyelets on the back. Subsequently attached rings for hanging. Engraved on the reverse with the names of the sitters: "LE ROY" (Louis XVI). "LA REINE" (Marie - Antoinette - youth portrait) "LA REINE" (Marie - Antoinette - older portrait). "MD. D'ARTOIS" (Maria Josepha of Saxony, wife of the Comte d'Artois, later King Charles X.) "Madame FILLE DU ROY" (Marie - Thérèse Charlotte de Bourbon 1778 - 1851). "MADAME" (Maria Josepha of Savoy, 1771-1810, wife of Louis, Comte de Provence, later King Louis XVIII, who was Louis XVI's eldest brother and bore the title "Monsieur". "M. BAILLY" (Jean Sylvaine de Bailly, mayor of Paris and French mathematician, 1736 - 1793) "M. L'ABBÉ MAURY" (Jean - Siffrein Maury, 1746-1817, opponent of the French Revolution, became Cardinal in 1794 and Archbishop of Paris in 1810). Exceptionally beautiful and rare, unusual ensemble of fine quality. Diameter 34 mm each. Highly interesting pieces on the history of the French Revolution and the Ancien Régime. The miniature shown in the image with the portrait of General Lafayette is sold individually. (Read more.)