A piece of mechanism of an elaborate nature was made by M. Camus for the special amusement of Louis XIV. when a child. It consisted of a small coach, which was drawn by two horses, and contained the figure of a lady within, with a footman and page behind. When this machine was placed at the extremity of a table of the proper size, “the coachman smacked his whip, and the horses instantly set off, moving their legs in a natural manner, and drawing the coach after them. When the coach reached the opposite edge of the table, it turned sharply at a right angle, and proceeded along the adjacent edge. As soon as it arrived opposite the place where the King sat it stopped, the page descended and opened the coach door, the lady alighted, and with a curtsey presented a petition, which she held in her hand, to the King. After waiting some time, she again curtsied and re-entered the carriage. The page closed the door, and having resumed his place behind, the coachman whipped his horses and drove on. The footman, who had previously alighted, ran after the carriage and jumped up behind into his former place.”[62]
Louis XIV. had an inordinate passion for jewels. His most costly possession was the famous crown of Agrippina, a work of consummate art, composed of eight tiers of immense brilliants in a transparent setting. In his private cabinet Louis XIV. “had two immense pedestals of rosewood, in the interior with shifting shelves, in which he kept the most precious of the crown jewels, in order that he might examine and admire them at his ease, an occupation in which he took great delight, nor did he ever hear of a gem of price, either in Asia or Europe, without making strenuous efforts to secure the prize.”
But this crown was the cause of a tragic and apparently mysterious occurrence. When the Princess of Modena passed through France on her way to England, where she was about to become the wife of the Duke of York, Louis gave her a costly reception, nothing on his part being left undone to make her brief sojourn at his Court as enjoyable as possible. It happened that the conversation turned on the forms and fashions of jewellery, which prompted the Marquis de Dangeau, who prided himself on his antiquarian knowledge, to observe that it was in the time of Nero the imperial crown was first arched, whereupon Louis added that he possessed one himself, and which the Marchioness de Montespan would produce. In due time the glittering circlet was brought forth to excite universal admiration; but when Louis obtained a close view of it, he exclaimed to the Marchioness, “How is this, madam? This is no longer my crown of Agrippina; all the stones have been changed.” The setting was intact, but the brilliants had been replaced by paste.
The mystery was before long solved, it being proved that the maker of the casket had affected an attachment for one of the waiting-women of the Marchioness de Montespan, who during his visits, having free access to where the crown of Agrippina was kept, had substituted the mock for the true diamonds. He was convicted and hanged, upon which occasion Louis XIV. remarked to the Duchess, “He has at least left us the setting, but Cromwell would have seized it whole.”[63]
The Elector Frederick, surnamed “the Wise,” was an indefatigable collector of relics. After his death one of the monks employed by him solicited payment for several parcels he had purchased for “the wise Elector; but the times had changed. He was advised to give over this business. The relics for which he desired payment, it was argued, they were willing to return; that the price had fallen considerably since the Reformation of Luther; and that they would be more esteemed and find a better market in Italy than in Germany.”[64]
The only expensive personal fancy, it is said, of Frederick the Great was for collecting snuff-boxes, of which he left as many as one hundred and thirty, valued at one million three hundred thousand dollars. Lord Malmesbury says that “one could hardly approach the King without sneezing.” Two thousand pounds weight of Spanish snuff had always to be kept in store. Smoking, on the other hand, says Vehse,[65] “was an abomination to Frederick ever since the tobacco in his father’s time.” A female sovereign who indulged in this habit was Catherine II. of Russia.
And in the reign of Alexis the penalty for a man who smoked a pipe of tobacco was to have his nose cut off. This sovereign seems to have had a great dislike of tobacco, but times were to change, and a well-known portrait of Peter the Great represents him sitting in a sailor’s dress enjoying a pipe.
Augustus the Strong of Saxony was a great china fancier, and his credulity in the transmutation of metals was accidentally the cause of the discovery of the celebrated Dresden ware. An apothecary’s lad, named Böttiger, composed a tincture that was supposed to be capable of being transformed into gold. But the reputation of a successful alchemist was fatal to his liberty, and the lad of seventeen was by order of Augustus placed under lock and key, with a complete laboratory at his disposal—a restraint which almost made him mad. The Governor of Konigstein reported on the 12th of April 1702 that “he foamed at the mouth like a horse, roared like a bull, knocked his head against the wall, and trembled so violently that two soldiers could not hold him. He considered the commandant to be the Archangel Gabriel; he blasphemed, and drank twelve cans of beer a day without getting drunk.”
Accordingly, the lad was removed to Dresden, where he was allowed a certain liberty, and owing to his flow of animal spirits he had the art of enchanting every one he met. Augustus himself sought his acquaintance, without giving him full liberty. It was whilst pursuing his experiments that Böttiger discovered the Meissen porcelain—commonly called Dresden china—which to Augustus, who, as already stated, was a great china fancier, was as welcome as gold itself, for he had expended vast sums on what is known as the Japan Palace. Many workmen were engaged from Delft to work the new ware, and in 1710 the manufactory of Meissen commenced the supply of the demand, which soon became European.
Böttiger’s fortune and reputation were made, for henceforth he had access to the King as often as he chose, who gave him a ring with his effigy, a young bear, two apes, and credit with the royal banker. And in 1715 he not only obtained his full liberty, but the profits of the porcelain manufactory for life. But he proved himself unequal to success, and he died of his excesses at the early age of thirty-four.[66]