Auction Alert—Rose Bertin, Millinier to Marie Antoinette
When I saw this auction on Ebay I got a little goosepimply. An entire book on Rose Bertin.
Who was Rose Bertin, you ask? O lover of antique fashions, she was the famous, famous milliner to Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
Bertin helped pioneer those extravagant headresses in which ships sailed, lambs frolicked, gods and goddesses danced allegories. This book, a translation from the French, describes Bertin's creations thusly...
"Everybody was talking of the poufs created by the firm of Bertin . . . one famous pouf was that of the Duchesse de Lauzun. She appeared at a reception wearing a most delicious pouf. It contained a stormy sea, ducks swimming near the shore, someone on the point of shooting one of them; on the top of the head there was a mill, the miller’s wife being made love to by an abbe, whilst near the ear the miller could be seen leading a donkey."
What makes Bertin particularly intriguing is that she attended Marie Antoinette from the young bride's first years in France to the final, tragic ones. She was more that Marie Antoinette's milliner, she was also a confidante.
Rose Bertin -- The Creator of Fashion at the Court of Marie Antoinette. 1913. 320 pages.
Ebay auction 230089521804
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