Tea at Trianon: The Allure of French Décor at Tallwood

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

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

The Allure of French Décor at Tallwood

From Victoria:

There is perhaps no home lovelier than the collected home—one that has “grown up” with a person or a family to tell their unique story. Fortunately, for those of us on a budget, this decorating philosophy is also quite practical and attainable, especially in modern culture, where history, and the beauty found therein, is valued by so few.

Thus, come the tales we so relish to exchange: a fine antique found while on holiday in a quaint European town, a beautifully patinaed eighteenth-century French mirror found at the estate sale of a prominent local widow, vintage English cupboards spotted on a local market page. These are the stories we love to tell of the pieces that have come to make our house a home. So has been our experience at Tallwood, as we’ve worked to restore and furnish a most beloved residence in a way that honors its storied past.

French antiques and vintage finds can, at the very least, bring a softness to a space and, at the very most, a femininity. The French aesthetic here at Tallwood is quite pronounced and can be traced back decades, to the installation of a rather glamorous French grisaille in the dining room. Needless to say, I was enchanted from the start. The term grisaille comes from the French word for “gray” (gris) and is a painting technique in which a monotone underpainting is overlaid with translucent oils. I often catch myself lost in the famous fountains of the Villa D’Este, which our grisaille depicts. (Read more.)