O artigo abaixo mostra como viviam aqueles que podiam viver assim. E lembro-me do Tevye... "would it spoil some vast, eternal plan if I were a wealthy man?" ;-)_________________
HISTORY FOR SALEJan 13th 2007
From Economist.com
Inside a royal household of 19th-century Greece
READING biographies, visiting museums and paying attention in class arethe traditional ways we learn about history. But there are other, more unorthodox methods: walking across battlefields, smelling dungeons, listening to old people tell stories of their youth. And what about auctions? What do the great clear-out sales, now such a regular feature of the auction calendar, tell us about their (usually departed) owners? How much do you learn about a man from his possessions?
This month Christie's will sell the furnishings of King George I of the Hellenes, who accepted the Greek throne in 1863, as a teenage Danish prince, and ruled for 50 years. His reign ended abruptly in the midst of the Balkan turmoil that led to the first world war. He was shot in the back while taking his evening stroll through the streets of Salonika.
Before his grisly end he was known as a kindly man, devoted to duty and aided in his kingly task by his Russian-born wife, Queen Olga, who arrived in Greece at the age of 16, wearing a dress in the Greek national colours of blue and white, and with her childhood dolls in her suitcase.
The family brought the formality of mid-19th-century royalty with them, even when they let their hair down. Court balls began at 10pm with the king and queen dancing a quadrille while their guests sat on hard green velvet sofas (Lots 179-184) and a seemingly endless number of giltwood banqueting chairs (Lots 186-192).
When there was no formal entertainment, the royal family used the ballroom as a makeshift indoor arena around which the king and queen, followed by their family in strict precedence, roller-skated or cycled, slaloming around the grand pillars and the heavy carved tables which they had had slavishly copied from the French by local artisans (Lot 178).
Nor did the formality end when they left for Tatoi, their country estate outside the city. Each room was furnished to the brim, the walls thick with classical landscapes and English portraits. Some they inherited, some they bought themselves, occasionally from dealers who were only too happy to dupe the royal pair.
The frame of a portrait of Lady Catherine Wemyss in a brown dress (Lot 82) boasts that the picture is by Kneller, the foremost portraitist of his time. Christie's attributes it only to "Circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller", and the estimate, at GBP 2,000-3,000, is commensurately low.
The queen also liked to buy small carved animals by Faberge, a fellow Russian. Mice, turkeys, kangaroos, seals, dogs, kittens, rabbits, pigs, walruses and chameleons, as well as a leaping frog with fabulous diamond eyes (Lot 372, shown left), dotted the shelves of her bedroom. Her favourite pieces, though, were her 13 elephants --the Order of the Elephant being the highest order of chivalry in her husband's native Denmark.
The servants who dusted these tchotchkes were crucial to keeping the royal household functioning smoothly. While the king sat at his desk or chose a cigarette from one of his 43 cigarette cases, his wife could summon a footman, using the jewelled enamel bell pushers (Lots 411 and 433) which Faberge had made specially for Tatoi.
There were servants in the dining room who did nothing but polish silver. At breakfast there were silver egg cruets, salt cellars, toastracks and mustard pots. At supper there were dinner plates, waiters, salvers, sauceboats, soup tureens and souffle dishes, also all of silver.
Silver frames displayed the menus of many courses. At each setting knives and forks spread out to right and left with the exuberance of a wave rushing up a shallow beach. The family could choose between the English banqueting service, with its 738 pieces of flatware, or the French. Each of these 922 pieces is inlaid with ivory and ebony, and none of them goes in the dishwasher.
Today the king and queen are buried in a white marble mausoleum in the grounds of Tatoi, and the house is boarded up. The roof has holes that let in the rain. Many of the marble pieces around the parterres have been pilfered. At the bottom of the king's private swimming pool there is only mud, leaves and dead frogs. The world of Faberge is history.
THE COLLECTION OF KING GEORGE I OF THE HELLENES WILL BE SOLD AT CHRISTIE'S IN LONDON ON JANUARY 24TH AND 25TH.
From Economist.com
Inside a royal household of 19th-century Greece
READING biographies, visiting museums and paying attention in class arethe traditional ways we learn about history. But there are other, more unorthodox methods: walking across battlefields, smelling dungeons, listening to old people tell stories of their youth. And what about auctions? What do the great clear-out sales, now such a regular feature of the auction calendar, tell us about their (usually departed) owners? How much do you learn about a man from his possessions?
This month Christie's will sell the furnishings of King George I of the Hellenes, who accepted the Greek throne in 1863, as a teenage Danish prince, and ruled for 50 years. His reign ended abruptly in the midst of the Balkan turmoil that led to the first world war. He was shot in the back while taking his evening stroll through the streets of Salonika.
Before his grisly end he was known as a kindly man, devoted to duty and aided in his kingly task by his Russian-born wife, Queen Olga, who arrived in Greece at the age of 16, wearing a dress in the Greek national colours of blue and white, and with her childhood dolls in her suitcase.
The family brought the formality of mid-19th-century royalty with them, even when they let their hair down. Court balls began at 10pm with the king and queen dancing a quadrille while their guests sat on hard green velvet sofas (Lots 179-184) and a seemingly endless number of giltwood banqueting chairs (Lots 186-192).
When there was no formal entertainment, the royal family used the ballroom as a makeshift indoor arena around which the king and queen, followed by their family in strict precedence, roller-skated or cycled, slaloming around the grand pillars and the heavy carved tables which they had had slavishly copied from the French by local artisans (Lot 178).
Nor did the formality end when they left for Tatoi, their country estate outside the city. Each room was furnished to the brim, the walls thick with classical landscapes and English portraits. Some they inherited, some they bought themselves, occasionally from dealers who were only too happy to dupe the royal pair.
The frame of a portrait of Lady Catherine Wemyss in a brown dress (Lot 82) boasts that the picture is by Kneller, the foremost portraitist of his time. Christie's attributes it only to "Circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller", and the estimate, at GBP 2,000-3,000, is commensurately low.
The queen also liked to buy small carved animals by Faberge, a fellow Russian. Mice, turkeys, kangaroos, seals, dogs, kittens, rabbits, pigs, walruses and chameleons, as well as a leaping frog with fabulous diamond eyes (Lot 372, shown left), dotted the shelves of her bedroom. Her favourite pieces, though, were her 13 elephants --the Order of the Elephant being the highest order of chivalry in her husband's native Denmark.
The servants who dusted these tchotchkes were crucial to keeping the royal household functioning smoothly. While the king sat at his desk or chose a cigarette from one of his 43 cigarette cases, his wife could summon a footman, using the jewelled enamel bell pushers (Lots 411 and 433) which Faberge had made specially for Tatoi.
There were servants in the dining room who did nothing but polish silver. At breakfast there were silver egg cruets, salt cellars, toastracks and mustard pots. At supper there were dinner plates, waiters, salvers, sauceboats, soup tureens and souffle dishes, also all of silver.
Silver frames displayed the menus of many courses. At each setting knives and forks spread out to right and left with the exuberance of a wave rushing up a shallow beach. The family could choose between the English banqueting service, with its 738 pieces of flatware, or the French. Each of these 922 pieces is inlaid with ivory and ebony, and none of them goes in the dishwasher.
Today the king and queen are buried in a white marble mausoleum in the grounds of Tatoi, and the house is boarded up. The roof has holes that let in the rain. Many of the marble pieces around the parterres have been pilfered. At the bottom of the king's private swimming pool there is only mud, leaves and dead frogs. The world of Faberge is history.
THE COLLECTION OF KING GEORGE I OF THE HELLENES WILL BE SOLD AT CHRISTIE'S IN LONDON ON JANUARY 24TH AND 25TH.
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