The Museums History
This is the story of the museum; from its beginnings until it came into the present custodian’s hands.
The collection’s beginnings are a little sketchy and subject to a lot of historical conjecture. It is assumed that the artefacts were kept by superstitious individuals until the time of their integration into the main collection.
(The Pea) The first authenticated written evidence of any of the collections artefacts is found in a Danish source. It lies in what has in recent years been called a ‘fairytale’. However, the origin of the tale can initially be verified as folklore. It is the ending of this particular story which is of interest in the context of this museum and its origins. It concludes with the phrase;
“…and the pea was put in a museum.”
Of course the pea referred to is that used the by royal matriarchs to test the legitimacy of potential brides and thus secure a pure royal maternal blood line.
The Pea is the germ of the collection. At some point in this museum’s life the pea was sold or stolen and found itself in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; first being recorded as part of a collection sometime in the 16th century.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was ruled, at that time, by the Habsburg dynasty. This dynasty bore a number of fervent collectors beginning with Charles V in the 15th century and continued by his brother the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. However, the object of our interest is his second son Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and Bohemia. It is in his collection at Castle Ambras near Innsbruck, Austria that the pea emerges from its Danish exile.
(Ferdinand&Ambras) In Ferdinand’s collection at Ambras we find the prototype of the wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities. His cabinets were famous throughout Europe. The collection occupied a whole building in his castle: 1000 objects methodically classified into twenty glass fronted colour coded cabinets. The collection included gold and silver ware, precious stones, bizarre musical and scientific instruments, bronzes, porcelain, manuscripts, ethnographic curiosities, minerals, corals, casts of naturalia, memento mori, miniatures in ivory and coral.
He had a particular interest in natural wonders, bizarre monsters and human freaks. Among some of his more unusual acquisitions were portraits of cat people (cat girl) (those with a genetic abnormality which left them covered in hair), antlers growing out of a tree, a portrait of a crippled dwarf dressed in the latest fashion (dwarf), unicorn horns, mandragora, and the congealed blood of the mythical medusa.
In relation to the current surviving collection, the Pea is our starting point. From this one Ferdinand’s agents seems to have abandoned the search for Scandinavian antiquity in favour of similar artefacts from Germanic antiquity: from a lock of Rapunzel’s hair to Hänsel’s pebbles; thorns from the rose imprisoning a narcoleptic princess to pips from the apple used in the attempted murder of Snow White. It appears that Ferdinand’s desire for this genre of artefacts waned and at his death they numbered only a dozen.
Ferdinand’s son inherited the collection but chose to sell his inheritance for 170,000 guilders to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (Ferdinand’s nephew). (Rudolf) Ferdinand had stipulated that the collection must remain together and be situated at Ambras. However these specific items were transferred to Rudolf’s collection in Prague. It is whilst the collection is in Rudolf’s possession that it passes into its greatest period of expansion.
Rudolf’s life was one of mental illness and political manipulation. Born in Vienna in later life he retreated to Prague and his mania for collecting. It provided a distraction from his illness and the political and religious dissensions in his empire. His inability to deal appropriately to the catholic protestant discord and his continued ill health meant that he ended his reign with the attempted usurpation of his throne. This would not be the first time that the catholic/protestant problem would haunt the collection.
Rudolf had an insatiable thirst for new acquisitions of the rare and bizarre. His collection was remarkable for its sweeping embrace of all forms of being and every manner of object and device. He enjoyed the scientific and magico-theological; adhered to medieval ways of thought and was susceptible to the nostalgia for the archaic typical of so many collectors. His collection happily mingled art and nature and revelled in their bizarre and grotesque progeny. There were four main rooms in his wunderkammer: Naturalia, Scientifica, Artificialia and a vast library. As well as several antechambers that housed bronzes and antiquities.
The artefacts from Ferdinand’s collection fitted well with Rudolf’s own and it seems that these few objects caught his imagination because he proceeded to enlarge the collection. With his vast resources and range of interests he was able to send his agents throughout Europe and beyond. They returned with artefacts originating in Ancient Greece and Rome to the south, the Slavic countries to the east, Scandinavian countries to the north and even one from the Middle East. Rudolf himself obtained further Germanic antiquities. Remarkably all of this was achieved in the course of a few years.
However Rudolf’s bouts of mental illness were becoming both more serious and frequent. And it is this which brings about the collections connection to England. During one of his periods of depression the Austrian archdukes who were growing more concerned called upon many physicians to bring about a cure and thus stabilise the Empire. One of these was to prove most influential on the story of the collection and on Rudolf himself. He had always been fascinated by alchemy and mysticism. Dr John Dee’s visit to Prague both satisfied his curiosity and briefly pacified the Archdukes. (John Dee)
Dr John Dee was an English academic who had studied ancient languages, mathematics, astronomy (which at that time included astrology) and had become increasingly interested in Hermeticism. He became a friend and advisor to royalty; initially the protestant King Edward VI but at Queen Mary’s accession his potential heretical activities and protestant faith put him into disfavour. It was the accession of the protestant Queen Elizabeth I whose coronation date he chose according to the most auspicious date astrologically, which saw the height of his popularity.
Dee was presumed to have been invited to the Habsburg court to access Rudolf’s mental health and advise his physicians. Rudolf was so taken with Dee as an alchemist, mystic and book collector that he brought him into his intimate circle. Their close association only remained trouble free for a brief time but during that time Dee sold Rudolf a manuscript containing mysterious ciphers (some decoded others still coded) that greatly pleased the emperor. Although the record states that the payment was in gold, I have deduced through the processes of my research, that the collection was also part of the payment.
(Pope Gregory) Dee was forced to leave Prague with the collection after a series of confrontations with Vatican representatives. He had attracted much attention and criticism during his visit as a heretic practicing magic and as an Englishman was a great example of the Protestant heresies the pontiff was enthusiastic to quash. After an attempt to bring about religious unity between Catholics and Protestants the Vatican’s pressure made Rudolf banish Dee from his territories.
Dee returned to receive a warm welcome from his patron Queen Elizabeth I. Despite constant rumours and stirrings about Dee’s activities – conjuring spirits and necromancy, he still paid visits to the Queens court whether at Richmond or Windsor. The Queen herself called on Dee in his home at Mortlake in Oxfordshire. It was believed that Dee had successfully hexed the Spanish Armada and secured an English victory. In the times he was away from court he continued to extend his library and the collection adding a series of artefacts from England and Scotland. His reputation for conjuring spirits continued to haunt him however putting him, his library and collection in jeopardy. After a viscous attack on his house he placed the collection into the care of the Queen at Windsor castle (Windsor castle). The care of the collection was specifically given to the steward’s wife and her successors in perpetuity.
The transfer of the collection could not have happened at a better time. Shortly afterwards Elizabeth died, and all court favour was withdrawn from Dee. James I was known as a hater of witchcraft and the occult and this period could have seen the loss of the collection.
But it lay safely at Windsor. The danger of destruction was never far away. During the civil war and the spread of Puritanism the collection being of possible heretical content was hidden in a secret recess in one of the lower galleries at Windsor. In 1648 the parliament took a vote as to whether to pull the castle down but this was narrowly defeated by one vote. However, the collection did see the light of day briefly when the state apartments were remodelled by Charles II. (Charles II) An associate of Charles II heard rumours of the collection and asked the custodian to add acorns he had taken from the tree which had hidden His Majesty during the first attempted restoration.
The collection stays quiet during the next few centuries. Windsor continues to be inhabited and remodelled by successive monarchs until a brief period of dereliction in the mid 18th century. During this time the collection gained a few additions. The restoration of the castle was completed by George IV and William IV and after this, in the early 19th Century; the collection has a flurry of unofficial activity, gaining six artefacts. During these centuries in appears that the stewardship of the castle and therefore the collection was a family legacy which ensured the safety of the collection.
The duration of Victoria’s reign and the majority of the twentieth century saw the collection remain dormant and forgotten, the legacy of anonymous custodians having died out. It was the 1992 Windsor fire which led to the collections rediscovery (Windsor Fire).
Unfortunately, its importance was misinterpreted and when the present custodian found it, it was languishing in an attic in a town near Prince Charles’ Highgrove Estate. It appears that after its discovery it was taken to Highgrove as something which might interest his royal highness. It obviously didn’t as it was dumped in t attic of one of his estate workers.
Research
The Museum welcomes researchers and the custodian is available for enquiries. The museum’s own research program continues apace to verify further objects as yet unavailable to the public due to their conservational instability. The authenticity of the objects in the collection has been confirmed through extensive research. By their nature, the object’s authenticity is more contentious than in many collections which are perceived as more orthodox. Only artefacts which can be authenticated as belonging to the collections history are shown as part of the museum collection.