The apartments are so arranged that each one you enter surpasses the last in interest and the variety of its contents. A great deal of space would be required to enumerate all the articles, though the principal may be easily set down.
The first apartment is devoted to bronzes of the nicest and most curious workmanship. There are copies in miniature of some of the famous statues, that cannot be fully appreciated without close attention to detail and a liberal understanding of art. A crucifix by John of Bologna, and a small dog, stretching itself, by Peter Visscher, are masterpieces of their kind.
In the second apartment are ivory carvings of remarkable excellence; among them a number of beautiful vases, some quite large, cut out of a single piece. There are, also, a battle scene by Albrecht Durer, a crucifix by Michael Angelo, and a marvellous group of some ninety figures carved in one piece sixteen inches high, representing the fall of Lucifer and his wicked angels. Nothing could be finer or more exact than these figures. Small as they are, they are perfect, and plainly show what extraordinary patience and skill the artist must have had. A goblet, of stag’s horn, cut like a cameo, in figures portraying the chase, is admirably wrought, as is also a cup on which the story of the Foolish Virgins is delineated.
The third apartment has Florentine mosaics, engraved shells, ostrich eggs carved and ornamented, a singular chimney-piece of Dresden china set with precious stones, paintings in enamel, and a number of portraits of historic characters, the most noticeable of which are Peter the Great and Augustus II., surnamed the Strong.
CUPS OF GREAT VALUE.
The fourth apartment is filled with the gold and silver plate formerly used at the banquets of the Saxon princes, a portion of which was wont to be carried to Frankfort on the occasion of the coronation of the German emperors by the electors of Saxony, who held the hereditary office of arch-marshal at those imposing ceremonies. Beyond the mere value, this plate is not desirable. If it were mine, I should melt it at once into the coin of the realm, since it has neither grace nor beauty of form. It may seem very grand to eat and drink out of such vessels, but they would be found extremely inconvenient for practical purposes. The china of our day is altogether superior to all the gold and silver plate that has ever been heaped on royal tables.
The fifth apartment is taken up with agates, crystals, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, and other varieties of semi-precious stones. Some cups of moss agates are particularly beautiful, and two goblets, composed entirely of cut gems, have a value of ten thousand dollars each. An equestrian statue of Charles II. of England, made from a solid piece of cast iron, represents him in the character of St. George, and is skilfully done. The eminent sculptor, Colin of Mechlin, has shown the cunning of his art by two spirited combats of knights, though they are only wooden heads; wood being the material of which the carvings are made. The largest enamel painting known, a Magdalen by Dinglinger, is also shown there.
The sixth apartment abounds in figures carved in ivory and wood, many of them caricatures of men and animals, which express the grotesqueness of the German mind. Single pearls of extraordinary size, nearly all found in the River Elster, are cut into odd shapes, some of them representing rustics, jesters, and elves. A pearl, large as a hen’s egg, is intended to portray a Spanish court dwarf, and is superbly done. Trinket as it is, it could not be purchased for twenty-five thousand dollars. There is, besides, any number of costly trifles, on which a vast deal of ingenuity and money must have been expended, and which are interesting from their artistic merit.
The seventh apartment is radiant with the splendid regalia used at the coronation of Augustus II.