A Miniature State: The Dollhouse City of Princess Augusta of Schwarzburg (1666–1751)

Abstract

During the first half of the eighteenth century, Princess Augusta of Schwarzburg established a large collection of dollhouses which resembled the interior decoration and furniture of her palace in Thuringia. Several hundred dolls represented herself, members of her dynasty, courtiers and the people around her. Today, it gives us an almost encyclopaedic picture of life in a small German princely residence. This article describes how this world in miniature came into existence. It examines its various functions in respect to the political, confessional and socio-cultural background of Princess Augusta and her husband Count Anton Günther II of Schwarzburg. The Mon Plaisir collection sheds light on the self-conception by which smaller courts made use of a cultural tradition as a political instrument within the system of the Holy Roman Empire.

Notes

1 For a virtual tour of the collection, see http://www.arnstadt.de/content/kulttour/monplaisir.html; a detailed study is now available: Annette Cremer, Mon Plaisir. Die Puppenstadt der Auguste Dorothea von Schwarzburg (1666–1751) (Cologne: Böhlau, 2015).

2 For a general introduction to the Holy Roman Empire see for example Peter H. Wilson, From Reich to Revolution. German History, 1558–1806 (Houndmills, 2004).

3 See Jeroen Duindam, Vienna and Versailles. The Courts of Europe's Dynastic Rivals, 1550–1780 (Cambridge, 2003); Volker Bauer, Die höfische Gesellschaft in Deutschland von der Mitte des 17. bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts. Versuch einer Typologie (Tübingen, 1993); and Vincent Czech, Legitimation und Repräsentation. Zum Selbstverständnis thüringisch-sächsischer Reichsgrafen in der frühen Neuzeit (Berlin, 2003).

4 Jochen Vötsch, Kursachsen, das Reich und der mitteldeutsche Raum zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt/Main, 2003).

5 Konrad Scheurmann (ed.), Neu entdeckt. Thüringen – Land der Residenzen (Mainz, 2004); Hans Patze (ed.), Geschichte Thüringens, Vol. 5 (Köln, 1978–82).

6 See for example, Sara Smart, Doppelte Freude der Musen: Court Festivities in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 1642–1700, (Wolfenbüttel, 1989).

7 On this phenomenon, see the conference proceedings on ‘the Prince as Artist’: Annette Cremer, Matthias Müller, and Klaus Pietschmann (eds), Fürst und Fürstin als Künstler (Munich, 2016).

8 Hartmut Fuhrmann, Arnstadt zur Bachzeit (Stadt Arnstadt, Beiträge zur Heimatgeschichte Stadt und Kreis Arnstadt, 4, 1985), pp. 27–40.

9 Andrea Kirchschlager and Heinrich Behr (eds.), Chronik von Arnstadt (Arnstadt, 2003).

10 Franz Philipp Florinus, Oeconomus Prudens et Legalis continuatus. Oder Grosser Herren Stands und adelicher Haus-Vatter bestehend in fünf Büchern (Nuremberg, 1719), vol. I, p. 128.

11 Jacob Amiet, Der Münzforscher Andreas Morellius von Bern (Bern, 1883); Martin Mulsow, Prekäres Wissen. Eine andere Ideengeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit (Berlin, 2012).

12 Part of the inspiration behind Anton Ulrich's more radical political and intense cultural actions in the 1690s was the elevation of his distant cousin (from the junior branch of the House of Brunswick), Ernst August of Hanover, as the ninth prince elector in 1692 (and as further irritant, his son would succeed as George I to the British throne in 1714). Christiane van den Heuvel and Manfred von Boetticher (eds.), Geschichte Niedersachsens. Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft von der Reformation bis zum Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts (Hanover, 1998), vol. III, p. 1. For further information on Anton Ulrich see Jochen Luckhardt (ed.), ‘… einer der größten Monarchen Europas?!’: Neue Forschungen zu Herzog Anton Ulrich (Petersberg, 2014).

13 Czech, Legitimation und Repräsentation. Count Wilhelm of Schwarzburg-Frankenhausen was married to Clara of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1593 (see Czech, p. 313, on her position within the Schwarzburg dynasty). See also Peter Kuhlbrodt, Clara von Schwarzburg (Auleben, 2009).

14 About 34,000 hectares, mostly forests and farmland. Inhabitants in its capital Arnstadt numbered 2,282 in 1648. Klaus Reinhold, Chronik Arnstadt, I (Arnstadt, 2004), p. 34.

15 Martin Luther, Enchiridion. Der kleine Catechismus (Wittenberg, 1529).

16 Tract literature on good housekeeping of the housefather and housemother seems to have been a speciality in the German-speaking early modern world. There has been renewed debate on the exemplary character of this textual genre. See, for example, Otto Brunner, Adeliges Landleben und europäischer Geist. Leben und Werk Wolf Helmhards von Hohberg 1612–1688 (Salzburg, 1949); Claudia Opitz, ‘Neue Wege der Sozialgeschichte? Ein kritischer Blick auf Otto Brunners Konzept des Ganzen Hauses', Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 20 (1984), pp. 88–98; Joachim Eibach, ‘Das offene Haus. Kommunikative Praxis im sozialen Nahraum der europäischen Frühen Neuzeit’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, 38 (2011), pp. 621–64.

17 Annette Cremer, ‘Mäzen und frommer Landesherr. Fürst Anton Günther II. von Schwarzburg-Arnstadt (1653–1716)’, Zeitschrift für Thüringische Landesgeschichte, 66 (2012), pp. 111–54.

18 Uta Wallenstein, ‘Die Friedensteinische Münzsammlung von ihren Anfängen bis zur Blüte unter Herzog Friedrich II. (1691–1732) von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg’, Patrimonia, 207 (2003), pp. 15–31.

19 Friedrich Christian Bressand, Salztthalischer Mayen-Schluß: Oder Beschreibung der auf den höchsterfreulichen Geburts-Tag der Durchleuchtigsten Fürstin und Frauen Elisabetha Juliana […] in Salztal angestellter Lustbarkeiten (Wolfenbüttel, 1694, reprint, Berlin, 1994, ed. Thomas Scheliga), pp. O ii; Sara Smart, Doppelte Freude der Musen: Court Festivities in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1642–1700 (Wolfenbüttel, 1989).

20 Barbara Krafft, Traumwelt der Puppen (Munich, 1991).

21 Vivien Greene, English Dolls' Houses of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (London, 1955); Vivien Greene, Family Dolls' Houses (London, 1973); Halina Pasierbska, Dolls' Houses from the V & A Museum of Childhood (London, 2008).

22 See Heidi Müller, Ein Idealhaushalt in Miniaturformat (Nuremberg, 2006), p. 89, for an example of the Nuremberg Dockenhaus of Kress von Kressenstein, dating from the second half of the seventeenth century, now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg. This text is also published in English as Good Housekeeping: A Domestic Ideal in Miniature (Nuremberg, 2007).

23 Jet Pijzel-Dommisse and Patricia Wardle, The 17th-Century Dolls' Houses of the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, 1994).

24 Leonie von Wilckens, Das Puppenhaus. Vom Spiegelbild des bürgerlichen Hausstandes zum Spielzeug für Kinder (Munich, 1978).

25 See Pijzel-Dommisse, Dolls Houses, p. 9, for a Dutch example, the doll-cabinet of Petronella Oortman (1686–1705), held in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

26 See Vivien Greene and Nick Nicholson, The Vivien Greene Dolls' House Collection (Woodstock, 1995), p. 30, for an English example, Quantock Oak, 1730–40.

27 Babyhouse of Ann Sharp, 1700–1770, Heydon Hall, Norfolk, England. See Olivia Bristol and Leslie Geddes-Brown, Dolls' Houses. Domestic Life and Architectural Styles in Miniature from the 17th Century to the Present Day (London, 1997), p. 38.

28 Nevile Wilkinson, Titania's Palace: An Illustrated Handbook (s. l., 1926); Mary Stewart-Wilson and David Cripps, Queen Mary's dolls’ house (New York, 1988); Within the Fairy Castle: Colleen Moore's Doll House at the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, 1997); Fannia Weingartner and Elizabeth Stepina, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2004); Sheila W. Clark, The Stettheimer Dollhouse (San Francisco, 2009).

29 Johann Sebastian Bach und seine Zeit in Arnstadt, Matthias Klein, ed. (Schloßmuseum Arnstadt; Stadtgeschichtsmuseum Arnstadt, Rudolstadt, 2000).

30 Ines Peper, Konversion im Umkreis des Wiener Hofes um 1700 (Graz, 2003).

31 For an account of the conversion see Christian Brodbeck, ‘Philipp Wilhelm Reichsgraf zu Boineburg’, Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte und Altertumskunde von Erfurt, 44 (1927), pp. 115 ff.

32 Johann Bernhard Heller, Zehen Sammlungen Sonderbarer Alt- und Neuer Merckwürdigkeiten Aus der berühmten Land-Grafschafft Thüringen (Jena, Leipzig, 1731), p. 438.

33 Cremer, Mon Plaisir, p. 189, Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Wolfenbüttel, 1 Alt 24, 232, 94.

34 Original Dorotheental faience can be found today in the Schlossmuseum Arnstadt and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

35 The inventory of Schloss Augustenburg from 1710 mentions a tailor's and a carpenter's workshop (Thüringisches Staatsarchiv Rudolstadt, Hofmarschallamt Sondershausen, 1). After the death of Anton Günther, Augusta claimed all the female sheep of the flock which amounted to more than 5,000 animals (Thüringisches Staatsarchiv Gotha, Geheimes Archiv B IV 68, vol. II 1717, 57); Johannes Bühring, Geschichte der Stadt Arnstadt (Arnstadt, 1904).

36 John Mack, The Art of Small Things (London, 2007).

37 Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham, 1993).

38 Matthias Klein and Carola Müller, Die Puppenstadt im Schlossmuseum zu Arnstadt (Königstein, 1992). Some miniatures carry the signature of these two padres while others can be traced to the Ursuline Convent in Erfurt where they seem to have been produced, most likely as a gift for Augusta. Only one bill from 1697 states that she bought doll-related items (‘poppen zeug’) at the Leipzig trade-fare.

39 Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies (Princeton, 1957).

40 See Pamela M. Pilbeam, Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks (London, 2003); Roberta Panzanelli, Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture and the Human Figure (Los Angeles, 2008); Johanna Lang (ed.), Körper in Wachs. Moulagen in Forschung und Restaurierung (Dresden, 2010).

41 Kaspar Friedrich Neickel and Johann Kanold, Museographia oder Anleitung zum rechten Begriff und nützlicher Anlegung der Museorum, oder Raritäten-Kammern (Leipzig, 1727), p. 415 and p. 456.

42 Horst Bredekamp, Antikensehnsucht und Maschinenglauben. Die Geschichte der Kunstkammer und die Zukunft der Kunstgeschichte (Berlin, 1993).

43 Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (eds.), The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Century Europe (Oxford, 1985).

44 Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, London, 20 September 1750. Horace Walpole's Correspondence, W.S. Lewis (ed.) (Yale University Press, 1937–1983), vol. XX, p. 187.

45 Bristol and Geddes-Brown, Dolls' Houses, p. 40. Frederick, Prince of Wales was born as Friedrich Ludwig of Hannover (1707–1751) and was a distant relative of Princess Augusta through the House of Brunswick. He had married a princess raised quite near Princess Augusta's residence: Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Bristol and Geddes-Brown, Dolls' Houses, p. 40.

46 Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Wolfenbüttel, 1 Alt 24, 238, 64–75, debts.

47 Ibid., 239, 43f, August 1751.

48 Cremer, Mäzen, p. 111–54.

49 On the approach of ‘material culture’ as historical source, see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ‘Why We Need Things', in Steven Lubar and David W. Kingery (eds.), History from Things (Washington, 1993), pp. 20–29; Karen Harvey (ed.), History and Material Culture. A Student's Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources (London/New York, 2009). More specific to early modernity, see Renata Ago, Gusto for Things. A History of Objects in Seventeenth-Century Rome (Chicago, 2013); Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up. Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford/New York, 2010); Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy, 1400–1600 (New Haven, 2009); John Styles, The Dress of the People. Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England (New Haven, Conn., 2007).

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Annette Cremer

Dr Annette Cremer studied Art History and English Literature in Germany and Ireland. She is Reader in Court History, Cultural History and Early Modern Material Culture Studies within the History Department of Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. She is the author of Mon Plaisir: Die Puppenstadt der Auguste Dorothea von Schwarzburg (1666–1751) (Cologne: Böhlau-Verlag, 2015).