You've seen gorgeous interpretations of old French script printed onto silk, cotton and linen by designers like Carolyn Quartermaine. You've seen the look on painted furniture, in wrapping paper, and on countless blog headers. Even Target has jumped on the bandwagon with their French Laundry Pillows!
Here, though, are the real items... up for auction this May in France. Letters, documents, engravings and stamps dating from the time of Louis XV... when Marie Antoinette was still a young girl playing with her puppy in Austria, and Benjamin Franklin was toying around with electricity in America!
Since I live in the New World, I am always captivated by these fascinating artifacts of handwritten and handmade visual communications in a world long gone by. I would love to attend this auction and bring home a small piece of French history!
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Quartermaine fabric.. I have interspersed some beautiful examples of her fabrics with the original old letters and manuscripts |
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I recognize the word for "today" here, but other than L'Abbaye, little else |
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of course, I can read Dieu Roy de France... or God, King of France... but not much else in this wonderfully scripted piece from centuries back |
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this is also clearly from post-Revolutionary France.. note the date as " an 10 de la République Francaise" and the letter is addressed to "Citoyen" and NOT "Monsieur" |
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I love this one, written after the Revolution ... in the year "deux de l'ere de la République" (2nd year of the Republic, or 1791).. wish I knew what it says and whose signatures .. members of the "Comité révolutionnaire de l'arrondiffement (sic) de la Côte, premiere division".. appear at the bottom |
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a missive from King Louis XV dated 1739 and signed by him at Versailles... I'm not the best at translating 18th C. French Script... anyone? |
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portrait of Louis XV, King of France from 1714 until 1764.. not so well regarded for the most part |
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I love this very frame able page from a philatalest's book with République Française stamps from the Art Nouveau era |
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post-Revolutionary letter addressed to "Citoyen" (Citizen) and NOT to Monsieur (My Lord) |
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this stamp from the French Empire era depicts a bust of Napoleon III |
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an air mail stamp from the early twentieth century |
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and before there was Poste Aérienne, there were Carrier Pigeons and Hot Air Balloons! |
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Carolyn Quatermaine's stunning designs rely heavily on the use of old French handwritten script and are shown above and below in a series taken from her own website to illustrate how closely they resemble the actual vintage handwritings that are coming up for auction |
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the three prints above are from the same large print and
depict (I believe) life in the royal court at the very
end.. just as things began to get very tense before the Revolution in 1789
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Carolyn Quatermaine captures the essence of the old French pre-Revolution era in her design of Chateau Beloeil.. and in her gold printed grey silk fabric, above |
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