One of my favourite monthly reads is 'The World of Interiors' mag. The latest September edition had an article on various interior and design books, one of them called Paris: Life & Luxury in the 18th Century.
I'm going out to buy it today. There was a wonderful line that resonated with me and really made me think, in the 21st century, where everything is about immediacy, speed and instant gratification, do we really even know what the word luxury means?
Both the book and article go on to say, that 'for today's consumer, 'luxury' is a marketing tag applied to loo roll and icecream than ormolu and silk moire. It demands nothing of us bar the willingness to pay more, and few of us pause to marvel at the dexterity of the loo-paper-maker.'
Never a truer word said in my opinion, and the article then laments, 'how different things were 300 years ago, then the central goal of cultivated sociability was to be aesthetically and socially gratifying to others.' And, never was there a more poignant demonstration of this that during the reign of Louis XV.
So, I thought what better way to exemplify this than show a few photos of some of the more exceptional pieces that we have, antiques with a quality that simply does not come along every day. And if you don't buy the book, at the very least read the article. Simply wonderful!
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