wiki-illiam #108: q13

[dubdobdee]

13:

1: Who created a Circus with Dame Laura?
2: Whose work in Chelsea "never can happen again"?
3: What factory mark represents the Sound and two Belts?
4: Which Bohemian produced cabbage roses for whom in the Kingdom?
5: Who first placed designs in silver on green pottery for which company?
6: The Saxon Hercules was instrumental in the establishment of what factory?
7: Who famously painted great white birds in flight for which company?
8: Which Salopian firm illustrated bird-assisted Chinese fishing?
9: What French product is identifiable by a hunting horn?
10: Which Magyar product is literally eosinophilic?

Comments

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

In which case I think either 4 or 6 must be Meissen. It's confusing, though, because (as I recall) the Margraviate of Meissen belonged to the Prussian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty, rather than to the kings of Saxony or Bohemia. But then there were often overlaps - Augustus the Strong was also King of Poland twice (in between all the shagging) and the Kings of Bohemia were also Holy Roman Emperors (inbetween all the praying).

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Meissen is still very closely associated with a German princeling aristocratic family -- he owns the land the factory is on, or something (we ran a piece on it three years ago and I've forgotten everything). The issue is here in my flat somewhere so I'll go have a root around.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Found it -- but it's not Meissen I was remembering, it's Nymphenburg, which has operated in the grounds of the van Bayern family's castle for roughly 250 years (viz the former royal family of Bavaria).

Current Duke is heir to the Stuart dynasty, tho I seem to recall is fairly chill abt the upstart House of Windsor.

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Having now had recourse to Wikipedia, I find that it is indeed Meissen that was established by Augustus the Strong. Apparently an alchemist called Böttger had boasted he could create gold, so Frederick I of Prussia was keen to make him do so. Böttger fled to Saxony, seeking Augustus' protection, and Augustus imprisoned him, and tried for force him to produce gold. After years of this, Böttger was given a porcelain recipe that had been discovered by a fellow chemist, and having tested it, he duly announced this to the king. Porcelain must have been in pretty high demand, because Gus was duly appeased, stopped asking for gold, and helped set up the factory.

(Gus seems to have had a habit of subverting the intentions of people who came to him for help. Maria Aurora von Königsmarck came to him for help finding her missing brother, and ended up becoming his mistress and producing the future field marshall Maurice de Saxe. The brother never showed up - it's since been determined that he'd been kicked to death by four assassins hired by the Elector of Hanover, the future George I of England, for having an affair with his wife. George himself left his wife imprisoned in a tower when he came to England, and brought two mistresses of his own along instead. All of this bothered Augustus not a whit; he moved on to seduce Aurora's Turkish lady-in-waiting, and produced two acknowledged bastards by her, as well.)