Tea at Trianon: Book of Devotions

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, September 17, 2025

Book of Devotions

Marie Antoinette and Sisters Signed Hand-Painted Devotional Miniature Book Telech27

Fourteen-year-old Marie-Antoinette signed the page across from the picture of Christ the King displaying His Five Wounds. She signed it "Antoine Archiduchesse," "Antoine" being the name by which she was known in her family. She signed two months before she was to leave for France. The book was a gift for one of her late grandmother's faithful attendants, Countess von Callenberg. From Le Boudoir de Marie-Antoinette:

High-quality hand-painted devotional miniature signed by the daughters of Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, including Marie Antoinette. Unique book of nine hand-painted devotional miniatures of outstanding quality, each signed and inscribed on the reverse by an archduchess of Austria—highlighted by Marie Antoinette—carefully mounted under mats and bound in calf of the late 19th century, with a manuscript description of the contents in the rear. The handsome leatherbound book measures 5 x 7.

The inscriptions are to countess Maria Anna von Callenberg, née countess Thurn-Valsassina (1721-86), first lady-in-waiting to Empress Elizabeth Christina, mother of Maria Theresa and since 1757 married to general Karl Kurt Reinicke, count Callenberg. Five of the nine miniatures are signed by daughters of Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I (thus uniting five out of eight princesses that survived infancy), one by a sister of Maria Theresa, another by the youngest sister of Francis I, yet another by the Imperial couple's daughter-in-law, and one by an unidentified writer. A scholarly study of the album, published in 1999 (cf. the sources below), praises the "outstanding graphic quality" of the miniatures, arguing that they must have been created by "professionally trained artists" (Feldhaus, p. 19). Presented in a slipcase and in fine condition, with the St. Expeditus miniature detached from its mount. (Read more.)

Marie Antoinette and Sisters Signed Hand-Painted Devotional Miniature Book Telech28