Powder box with a new life

I couldn't resist this lovely powder box from the Etsy site Wisps Gathering Beauty --which is Fete et Fleurs blog's items for sale. Many tempting things at Wisps Gathering Beauty!!

It reminds me so much of the era of Louis XV. I wish the purple knob could be pink but it is still so beautiful. The other artwork above is a portrait of Madame de Pompadour at her vanity. It is fun to pretend she used the powder box. My powder box is not that old but she probably used something similar or a Sevres porcelain one.

Women often entertained visitors while they completed la toilette at their vanities. It was a more leisurely time and having someone visiting while you completed your morning dressing was a way to show favor, show femininity and a feminine way to persuade someone to your way of thinking. Madame de Pompadour is a complex, highly intelligent figure from history. I find her even more interesting and cultured than Marie Antoinette. As the kings"favorite" she had power and she greatly influenced style, art and basically started the Sevres porcelain business. She would hold showings of the porcelain in her rooms at Versailles and all the king's nobles would come to purchase-- maybe the first "home shopping" long before Tupperware!! She encouraged the arts and was very loyal to artists and poets.

All these thoughts zip through my head while I look at my powder box. I am using it to hold bracelets. It is so nice to have pretty containers to hold things you use every day. In our high tech world I find it comforting to use handmade and old items that help connect me to the past when objects were handmade with pride. It is fun to wonder who else used these old objects.

Have a PINK day!