The Saxon Angle: Porcelain Politics
By MARTIN RUBIN
Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2008 (p. W11)
Fragile Diplomacy
Edited by Maureen Cassidy-Geiger
Yale University Press, 369 pages, $125
. . . “Fragile Diplomacy,” a combination of lavish illustration and substantial scholarship, captures the beauty of Meissen’s porcelain and the subtle role it played among Europe’s statesmen and royal houses. The book’s stunning photographs, accompanied by expert essays, show off the details of ornate design and striking form — table services, tureens and vases painted with soft landscapes or intricate patterns, gilt-edged candlesticks, hunting cups, mythic beasts and goddesses in leafy bowers. . . .
The period 1710-63 is a momentous one for Europe, for those years mark the inexorable decline of France as the pre-eminent European power, creating shifting alliances as Austria, Prussia, Russia and minor states like Saxony jockeyed for position. At one point the elector of Saxony actually became the king of Poland, displacing no less a figure than French King Louis XV’s future father-in-law. These years were the perfect time for Saxony to employ its one asset that no one else could match. . . .
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