Pink sevres and Marie Antoinette

My favorite Marie Antoinette movie is the 2006  Sophia Coppola one shown above. I've watched it many times and always see "new" things with each viewing. I love the dressing scenes and the use of historically correct props. The Sevres porcelain bowl and water pitcher is a perfect example.

I think it must be fun and rewarding to be on a movie team maybe scouting the locations and finding props and building interiors.It is probably very hard work and many long days. Some props are hired from a few big London prop houses or lent by private collectors.

Many of the Sevres porcelains in museums and coming up on auction sites are in blue or Pompadour pink, a deeper rose shade favored by Madame de Pompadour a patroness of the Sevres factory.

The bowl above is more to  Marie Antoinette's taste in the pastel pinks and blues.

The jeewelry chest which I found for sale is the pale pink and I like to think it could have been in the movie too!

Have a Pink day!

What Marie Antoinette would want for Christmas?

What would Marie Antoinette want for Christmas? My tree in our master bedroom is an homage to her. I put ornaments on that reflect her likes and interests. So in keeping with that idea, this year, I changed a bit what I have placed underneath it. I added things that she would most likely have had in her private rooms at Versailles or at Petit Trianon.

In her time she may have wished for jewels or perhaps an animal for the little farm of hers. Or large trees for the gardens. Gift giving at Christmas was not really big in her era. Back then it was more of a religious holiday with Mass and prayers and wonderful music and something good for dinner.Maybe she wanted a new harp or a new sleigh for snow sledding? 

If you peek under the tree you will find Sevres porcelain objects, a fan with her monogram on it, a nosegay from a grand ball, and a pinkish clock for her mantel.

Joining in Pink Saturday
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/
Have a Pink day!

Vanity can be fun

 Dressing table items

 Rococo style powder box

 Pommade pot

 Powder blower

 Miles Redd vanity via Chinoiserie Chic

 Boucher painting

Vanity tables

I am sure you have seen the two paintings at the bottom-- one of Madame de Pompadour and the other by Boucher titled The Milliner.  I saw the pink Miles Redd chinoiserie style vanity table/powder room on the Chinoiserie Chic blog last week and loved it. 

That got me thinking about some other photos I have of items that may have been on a woman't vanity table. Women of the nobility used the time at their vanity tables to meet with people, choose clothing items, seduce and gossip. It was a setting that usually showed a woman's best attributes. Even 200 years later we still have the feminine vanity table. Some of the items on it are different but idea and the prettiness of it endures.

Have a Pink day!

Sevres jar a Valentine gift from Pink Boy

Love the rose on the lid A Valentine Gift

Another EBay treasure Pink Boy found for me. It is a sauce pot-- although I do not understand that at all . It looks like a big jar to me. Whatever it is it is lovely and that wonderful shade of Pompadour pink. I always visit the Sevres display at the Met in New York when I go there and now I own a tiny bit of it (not nearly as old of course) for my pink home.
Have a Pink day!

Happy Birthday Madame de Pompadour

Today in 1721 was the birth of the baby girl who would become mistress of the King of France, patron of the arts, champion of Voltaire and a political power broker. Known formally as the Marquese de Pompadour, a title given by the King this pretty woman set her sights on her King and became his soul mate.

In Nancy Mitford's biography ( the best ever written) we learn so much about the era and the royal court as we do about Jeanne Poisson. To me Madame de Pompadour is as interesting a figure as Marie Antoinette.

Have a Pink day!