Greetings and Salutations
Today, I am proud to announce a milestone in my SL Life. After much hard work, many disappointments and frustrations, I am pleased to announce that we had our first public tour of the state rooms in Buckingham Palace. This has been a long time coming and it starts a new chapter for me, my team and Antiquity.
For over 3.5 years, the Buck Team, as I will call us, have worked hard to create a place to house our English Court. I was blessed that when we were making these decisions, two people stood by my side and offered to help make this project come to fruition, Prince Crotian Egerton de Bexar and Princess Twelfth Night Egerton de Bexar. I cannot stress enough, how much, these two have done to make this day possible. Working with me, Prince Crotian and Princess Twelfth Night played an active role in the creation process, both of them building components and creating textures for the palace. The times I was at my lowest, ready to give up, they stood by me, supported me, and pushed me to continue. It is at those times, when one most needs support and they were always there for me. There are no words to properly praise them as they deserve. All I can say is I love my family.
When the decision was made to start Buck, foolishly, I told my brother Tocho and the administrators of Antiquity, oh, dont worry, I will have it done in a few months. Famous last words uttered by many a fool. Even after the gross under estimation of the time needed, my brother Tocho and the Admins of Antiquity, supported me and the team. We want to thank them for that support that allowed us to work on this project over these years.
Just like many people out there, me included, never thought this project would ever be finished. People would ask me, how is Buckingham, and I would answer, getting closer. After the first two years of this, many would just answer, oh I cant wait, but not sounding 100% sure they would ever see it. I do not blame anyone for not believing it would be finished. I had my doubts too, lol. Buck is a project that will never really ever be finished. As we move forward, we will constantly be making improvements and changes. We have learned much over the past few years and our building techniques have improved. So although Buck is ready to move into and start using, do keep an eye out for improvements in the years to come.
There are a couple things, I would like to touch on from the start. Buckingham, is not made to scale nor was it our intention to create an exact scale duplicate of the palace. Our goal, when building this, was to create a place that we could utilize for role play to house our new British court. Hundreds of rooms and thousands of doors do make it accurate but also impossible realistically for SL. We played with the room sizes, we played with the floor plan and we improvised where we needed all to create a functional palace that we could not only use but enjoy.
That said, we did try to capture the spirit of the Palace and strived to get close to the few rooms we did have photos of to work with. There are not many photos of the palace so we were limited at the start. Again, we were not trying for exact copies of the rooms, which is an impossible feat without proper access and documentation, proper photos to get you through. But the result, is a place we are proud of and its warm enough to call home.
This past Sunday, we had our first public tour of the State Rooms of Buckingham. I gave an hour long voice tour of the rooms for the Virtual Pioneers. I would like to thank Spiff , Serena and Beth of the Virtual Pioneers for helping arrange the tour, and being patient enough with me over all this time to get it finished. I guided them through the state rooms and it marked the first public showing for us, a big step.
Over the next few weeks and months, we will be building and creating the foundations of the court group. We will be releasing information as we move forward with the structure, protocols and characters that we will utilize for this group. We look forward to growing our court in both role play and in historical substance. We hope to employ a mix of history and SL practicality to create something both fun and historical.
We will be having an open house for the residents of Antiquity and if other would like to see it, we can also schedule a broader open house for any that might want to get a look at what we have so far.
Before I end, I would like to thank a few more people that have helped get us to where we are at today. There are many people we want to thank and please excuse me if I leave someone out, as it is my intention to celebrate all who have given to this project. They all deserve our thanks and recognition.
The following people have contributed to the project. Do take time to come and visit, see all the beautiful work they have contributed to Buckingham. Their work on the palace and the furnishings are exceptional and please remember to visit their shops and patronize their work. It is a better place for all of us when we encourage and support builders of this caliber. These are masters at their crafts and I am so lucky to have had them all help us.
Crotian Egerton de Bexar Personal Support, Building, Textures, Custom Furniture, Details. An unending strength to push forward and complete it.
Twelfth Night Egerton de Bexar Personal Support, Building, Textures, Details. An unending strength to push forward and complete it.
Administrators of Antiquity Holding up the fort and putting up with this long project and tons of personal support.
Maria Antonia von Wittelsbach (mariaantonia.barenhaut) Floor Plans, History information, Group Structure and Information, Photos
Louis-Francis de Beauharnois (wiseboyqc) - Support, Building help, Furniture and Decorations
Leandro Malaspina Custom Furniture and Accessories
Gaianed Francisco di Cremona (gaianed) Custom Furniture
Cathryn Beaumont Custom Furniture
Art Charlotte-Josphine d'Amboise (jane.ixtar) (Gallery Exhibits Collection of George III), Tiamat Windstorm (East Gallery and State Room Portraits), Maria Antonia Barunhart- History and Paintings.
RL Friends and Family Endless support and the personal restraint not to have me committed over these past few years. I know many thought I was needing help, but gave me the support to be proud of what we were doing. Yes Klari and Dickie, I see much wine in our future now this is finished:P
The last thank you I save for Tocho Cortes. Tocho, as some of you may know, is my RL brother and main supporter in SL. From day one, he has stood besides me, helped me and pushed me to improve and create more. If it were not for Tocho, Antiquity and Buckingham, would not be here today. Thank you brother, for always believing in me, and pushing me to even bigger and better things.
I am sure I have forgotten someone, but I will be adding to the credits list and updating it as we go forward.
I have not included photos, as I am one terrible photographer....but as soon as I can get some nice photos...I will post them....:)
Thank you
Jacon Cortes
Finished State Rooms: Grand Entry, Marble Hall, Bow Room, 1844 Room, 1855 Room, Grand Staircase, Green Drawing Room, Throne Room, Grand Gallery, White Drawing Room, Music Room, Blue Drawing Room, State Dining Room, East Gallery.
Additional Rooms: Indian Room, Asian Room, Chinese Dining Room, Yellow Drawing Room
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His Royal Highness Jacon Cortes de Bexar Prince of Antiquity, Duke of Cumberland, Duque de Bexar, Duc de la Valliere, Marchese di MSB
updated by @jacon-cortes-de-bexar: 06 Oct 2016 06:36:21AM
