Print measures 3 feet by 4 feet.
Printed on extra-light 20 lb. paper.
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Collette de Clare spent thirty-one years as the Chief Etiquette Historian for the Grand Society of Unnecessary Formalities, an organization devoted to preserving customs that no one could remember the purpose of but everyone agreed should continue. Her most celebrated paper examined the social implications of accepting a third éclair at a garden party.
In the spring of 1987, Collette inherited a château, two peacocks, and a decades-long disagreement with a neighboring family over the ownership of a decorative sundial. The dispute remains unresolved. The peacocks are thriving.
She maintained an extensive correspondence with strangers whose names she found written inside secondhand books. Many of these friendships lasted decades. Several participants never realized they had never actually met her.
Collette possessed an extraordinary talent for making ordinary occasions feel historic. Lunch became a luncheon. A walk became a promenade. Buying stamps somehow felt like participating in a centuries-old tradition.
Those unfamiliar with Collette often assumed she was aristocracy.
She was not.
She simply carried herself with the confidence of someone who had never once rushed for anything in her entire life.
