page_title: The Ritz Hotel, London
section_title: Marie Antoinette Suite
hierarchical_section_title: The Ritz Hotel, London / Architecture / Interior / Marie Antoinette Suite
caption_attribution_description: Photo of the Marie Antoinette Room from an article about the Ritz Hotel, London from the November 1914 issue of Architectural Record.
context_page_description: The Ritz London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly in London, England. A symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and best known hotels. It is a member of the international consortium, The Leading Hotels of the World. Over the course of its history the Ritz has become so associated with luxury and elegance that the word "ritzy" has entered the English language to denote something that is ostentatiously stylish, fancy, or fashionable.
  The hotel was opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in May 1906, eight years after he established the Hôtel Ritz Paris. After a weak beginning, the hotel began to gain popularity towards the end of World War I, and became popular with politicians, socialites, writers and actors of the day in particular. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against Turkey. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s.
context_section_description: The Marie Antoinette Suite is accessed from the main restaurant. According to Marcus Binney "the gilded detail of the room has the lustre and crispness of gilt bronze, even the egg-and-dart in the boldly modelled cornice". Floral motifs are a common feature of the room, given the namesake, Marie Antoinette, and represents the flowers at one of her feasts. Over the overmantel is a basket of flowers, with "flowers spilling out over the frames of the oval lunettes".  In the small entrance lobby of the suite are two terracotta statues of Spring and Summer, with "drum-shaped pedestals ornamented with gilt-bronze flowers and ribbons". The ventilation grilles, of considerable size, are decorated in bronzed lattice. On the walls are a series lamp holders held by miniature Apollo lyres, with each bulb holder containing around 25 leaves opened out. The lights, according to Binney, are hung on "cords from ribbons tied in bows, entwined at intervals with flowers, descending to a cluster of tassels".  The panels of the walls are treated like picture frames, with inner and outer mouldings, in contrast to the window frames and the wall mirrors which are surrounded by "clusters of reeds, with an inset behind which a curtain could hang without obscuring the moulding", according to Binney.
caption: The Marie Antoinette Suite in 1914
exif: {}