Earth and Space News: 1976 replica Liechtenstein ducal hat

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Friday, August 31, 2018

Paper Trail Behind the Unsolved Liechtenstein Ducal Hat Mystery

Summary: The Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery has a paper trail in correspondence, drawing, inventories and wills that heads mystery-solvers to dead-ends.

Karl I (July 30, 1569-Feb. 12, 1627), first Prince of Liechtenstein, began his reign Dec. 20, 1608, and commissioned Daniel de Briers for the Liechtenstein ducal hat, which went missing in the 18th century: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery arises despite an avowal of unalterability and unattachability in the gouache inventory number 360 Sep. 1, 1756, annotating the "complete jewelry belonging to the Princely Liechtenstein Primogeniture."

Nothing bears the likeness of the Liechtenstein ducal hat except the gouache and the replica from 1976 in the Liechtenstein National Museum (Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum) in Vaduz. The replica captures the gouache's colors and configuration and celebrates the 70th birthday of Franz Joseph II (Aug. 16, 1906-Nov. 13, 1989), 15th prince of Liechtenstein. The drawing in opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a binding agent displays the Liechtenstein ducal hat, the eldest-born's princely jewelry and descriptive text.

The gouache's exact exhibition of the headpiece's front encourages Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery-solvers to expect an extraction sometime, somewhere even though re-purposing exists as an outcome.

Gouache inventory number 360 fits diamonds, pearls and rubies onto the gold finial atop the velvet hat, the gold circlet and the front's eight gold standards.

Svenja's article in the blog Luxarazzi Sep. 5, 2014, gives Liechtenstein ducal hat gem and metal breakdowns as old pieces of gold jewelry and 23 pearls. It has 6 table-cut diamonds, 3.25 carats as 45 diamonds, 5.5 carats as 35 diamonds, 10 carats as 16 diamonds and 19 carats as 16 rubies. The book Lichtenstein: The Princely Collections by The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York identifies the Liechtenstein ducal hat's individual contributions and costs.

Gems in the possession of Liechtenstein ducal hat commissioner Prince Karl I (July 30, 1569-Feb. 15, 1627) joined those in the Herzogshut ("ducal hat") creator's collection.

Daniel de Briers, art dealer and jeweler for the Habsburg imperial court, kept in Prague hardstones and rock crystals purchased from the imperial Kunstkammer ("curiosity cabinet").

Princely archives listed paying 4,500 florins in May and June 1626 to Jobst von Brüssel (died 1635) and 9,000 florins Sep. 7, 1626, to de Briers. Habsburg imperial court goldsmith Gottfried Nick (died 1640) made the Liechtenstein ducal hat frame in Frankfurt-am-Main and moved it to Prague for 27 florins 30 kreutzer. Completion needed Frankfurt-am-Main-based crown case-maker and cutler Martin Jürgen, furrier Lorenz Hainrich, hat-maker Adam Michael, hat-trimmer Mathes Gabriel, purse-maker Hans Berckman and velvet case-maker Anselmo Sardati.

De Briers operated as Habsburg imperial court jeweler in Frankfurt-am-Main even as his Netherlands-born brother-in-law, von Brüssel, operated as court jeweler in Prague to three emperors.

The documents that pertain to the Liechtenstein ducal hat commission and completion in the princely archives preserve total estimated expenditures at over 16,000 florins or gelders.

Absence of the Herzogshut from the first nine reigning princes' portraits qualifies as big a mystery as absence of the Liechtenstein ducal hat from entailed collections. The 27.5- by 18.875- (69.8- by 48-centimeter) pencil, pen and ink and gouache on vellum recalls the expensive, extensive efforts relating to the Liechtenstein ducal hat. Perhaps the Herzogshut's significance stopped when its commissioner's direct male line stopped, despite the gouache stating crown jewelry "shall remain for all times unchanged and unaltered."

Who took the Herzogshut without telling whether the Liechtenstein ducal hat turned into melted metal, recut gems and retailored velvet after temporary turbulence among competing heirs?

A replica of the Luxembourg ducal hat, presented by the people of Liechtenstein to Prince Franz Joseph II on his 70th birthday August 1976, is displayed in Vaduz's Liechtenstein National Museum; (left to right): Countess Georgina von Wilczek and her husband, Prince Franz Joseph II; Countess Marie Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau and her husband, Hans-Adam, now 16th Prince of Liechtensten: Luxarazzi @ Luxarazzi, via Facebook Nov. 13, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left to right) Countess Georgina von Wilczek and her husband, Prince Franz Joseph II; Countess Marie Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau and her husband, Hans-Adam, now 16th Prince of Liechtenstein: Luxarazzi @Luxarazzi, via Facebook Nov. 13, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=836522963034742

For further information:

Dotson, Samuel C. 2003. Genealogie des Fürstlichen Hauses Liechtenstein Seit Hartmann II (1544-1585). Falköping Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books.

Kräftner, Johan; Isabel Kuhl eds. 2004. Liechtenstein Museum: The Princely Collections. Prestel Museum Guides. Munich, Germany; London, England; New York, NY: Prestel.

Liechtenstein: The Princely Collections. New York NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=A1f7lsIFyu0C&pg=PA31&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Luxarazzi @Luxarazzi. 13 November 2014. "25 years ago today, Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein died just weeks after his wife, Princess Gina." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=836522963034742

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 August 2018. "Liechtenstein Ducal Hat Unsolved Mystery Since the 18th Century." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/liechtenstein-ducal-hat-unsolved.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 August 2018. "Liechtenstein Ducal Hat Mystery: Collateral Lines, Competing Heirs." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/lichtenstein-ducal-hat-mystery.html

Svenja. 5 September 2014. "Luxarazzi 101: The Ducal Hat of Liechtenstein." Luxarazzi.
Available @ http://www.luxarazzi.com/2014/09/luxarazzi-101-ducal-hat-of-liechtenstein.html

Wilhelm, Gustav. 1960. "Der historische Liechtensteinische Herzogshut." Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins für das Fürstentum Liechtenstein 60: 7-20.
Available via Liechtensteinische Landesbibliothek @ http://www.eliechtensteinensia.li/viewer/image/000000453_60/9/LOG_0006/

Friday, August 24, 2018

Liechtenstein Ducal Hat Mystery: Collateral Lines, Competing Heirs

Summary: The Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery arose during 70 years of a lack of consensus among competing heirs over the ducal headpiece and princely succession.

Vaduz's Liechtenstein National Museum holds the 1976 replica of Liechtenstein ducal hat, which was presented by people of Liechtenstein, to Prince Franz Joseph II (Aug. 16, 1906-Nov. 13, 1989) for his 70th birthday; Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum (Liechtenstein National Museum), Vaduz, west central Liechtenstein; Sunday, June 1, 2014, 14:28: Gryffindor, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

The unsolved mystery of the Liechtenstein ducal hat appears no more solvable in 2018 than at its last witnessed showing Sep. 1, 1756, or first written admission of absence Aug. 18, 1791.

The bejeweled, velvet-topped headpiece bore gems from its princely and ducal commissioner's personal belongings in Prague and from its jeweler's commercial collection in Frankfurt am Main. It could be considered a personal conveyance of Karl I's direct descendants until confictive collateral lines concluded June 1, 1722, with the reigning first-born ruler's claims. No painter depicted the Liechtenstein ducal hat on or with its princely and ducal owners in the portraits displayed in principality-devoted museums and palaces or online.

One gouache from Sep. 1, 1756, and one replica from 1976 in Vaduz express the diamond, gold, pearl, ruby, velvet elaboration of the Herzogshut ("ducal hat").

The portrait of Karl I (July 30, 1569-Feb. 12, 1627), first prince of Liechtenstein and duke of Jägendorf and Troppau, furnishes nothing about the ducal hat.

The portrait gives Karl I a black hat in his left hand, a ring on his littlest ring finger and a sword on his left side. The portrait of Karl I's son and successor, Karl Eusebius (April 11, 1611-April 5, 1684), has a velvet headpiece with a red-and-white circlet on his left. It is not the Liechtenstein ducal hat and the paternal sword for which Karl Eusebius included a sword hilt in 1629 is not in the portrait.

Collateral conflicts jeopardized the Liechtenstein ducal hat's ownership upon the death of Karl Eusebius' only surviving son and successor, Hans-Adam I (Aug. 16, 1662-June 16, 1712.

The principality knew a crisis between collateral lines from Karl I's brother, Gundakar (Jan. 30, 1580-Aug. 5, 1658), lord of Ringelsdorf and Wilfersdorf in Lower Austria.

Hans-Adam I liked Gundakar's descendant, third cousin Philipp Erasmus's (Sep. 11, 1664-Jan. 15, 1704) son Josef Wenzel I (Aug. 9, 1696-Feb. 10, 1772), as his successor. The move misaligned a succession that meant to make Gundakar's other direct descendant, Hans-Adam I's other third cousin, Anton Florian (May 28, 1656-Oct. 11, 1721), ruler. Anton Florian, son Josef Johann Adam (May 25, 1690-Dec. 17, 1732) and grandson Johann Nepomuk Karl (July 6, 1724-Dec. 22, 1748) netted fifth through eighth princeships.

Josef Wenzel I obtained the fourth and eighth princeships, during the latter of which collateral conflicts concluded June 1, 1722, with eldest-born rulers owning the hat.

The reigns and the deaths of the princes of Liechtenstein typically prompted pre-mortem wills and post-mortem inventories and atypically provoked an inventory by the reigning prince.

Josef Wenzel I queued up the Liechtenstein ducal hat and other jewels for an illustrated inventory of the "complete jewelry belonging to the Princely Liechtenstein Primogeniture." Franz Joseph I's (Nov. 19, 1726-Aug. 18, 1781) inventory Feb. 10, 1772, revealed the Liechtenstein ducal hat removed from entailed collections without reflecting when or why. Luxarazzi suspects a reworked Liechtenstein ducal hat as "an unidentified piece of jewellery" sold to Habsburg Empress Maria-Theresa (May 13, 1717-Nov. 29, 1780) for 22,000 Gulden.

Who took the ducal sword, the Liechtenstein ducal hat and two "finger" rings out of the House of Liechtenstein's princely patrimony how, when, where and why?

1756 gouache illustration of Liechtenstein ducal hat (Herzogshut) is the only known depiction of Liechtenstein's crown jewels; the ducal hat's last-known possessor was Prince Franz Joseph I (Nov. 19, 1726-Aug. 18, 1781), whose reign began Feb. 10, 1772; Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, eastern Austria, holds the 1756 gouache: Gryffindor, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Dotson, Samuel C. 2003. Genealogie des Fürstlichen Hauses Liechtenstein Seit Hartmann II (1544-1585). Falköping Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books.

Kräftner, Johan; Isabel Kuhl eds. 2004. Liechtenstein Museum: The Princely Collections. Prestel Museum Guides. Munich, Germany; London, England; New York, NY: Prestel.

Svenja. 5 September 2014. "Luxarazzi 101: The Ducal Hat of Liechtenstein." Luxarazzi.
Available @ http://www.luxarazzi.com/2014/09/luxarazzi-101-ducal-hat-of-liechtenstein.html

Friday, August 17, 2018

Liechtenstein Ducal Hat Unsolved Mystery Since the 18th Century

Summary: The Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery involves a diamond, gold, pearl, ruby, velvet crown, missing since the 18th century, made for dukes and princes.

The Liechtenstein ducal hat mystery approaches in 2018 the 237th to 262nd anniversary of its absence as the bejeweled headpiece of the princes of Liechtenstein and the dukes of Jägendorf and Troppau.

The 237th and 262nd anniversaries respectively bring up the last dates of the Liechtenstein ducal hat's viewing and the first for its absence from entailed collections. The 262nd anniversary commences from the conclusion of an artistic creation and a written composition concerning the Liechtenstein ducal hat and the other collected crown jewels. The 237th anniversary dates to the death of one prince whose lifespan drew together the depiction and description and the disappearance of the Liechtenstein ducal hat.

The Liechtenstein National Museum (Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum) exhibits a Liechtenstein ducal hat that entertains its 42nd, not its 392nd, anniversary in 2018 as a replica from 1976.

The book Liechtenstein: The Princely Collections by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art furnishes an image of the 262-year-old gouaches of the Liechtenstein ducal hat.

Online sources, such as the Luxarazzi article for Sep. 5, 2014, and the Wikipedia article on the missing Ducal Hat of Liechtenstein, give the same image. The artwork in opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a binding agent, online and published sources and the replica hold the likeness for posterity. The impression from the 262-year-old artwork, the 42-year-old replica and the 20th-century published and the 21st-century online sources is of a red, white and yellow headpiece.

The book, the gouache, the online sites and the replica jumble red for rubies, spinels and velvet, white for diamonds and pearls and yellow for gold.

Whoever knew or knows the whereabouts of the Liechtenstein ducal hat keeps or kept secret the means, motives and opportunities behind repurposed fabric, gems and metals.

Correspondence in the princely archives and the gouache respectively lists the commission and completion dates 1623 and 1626 and the Inventory number 360 Sep. 1, 1756. Karl I (July 30, 1569-Feb. 12, 1627), first prince of Liechtenstein and duke of Jägendorf and Troppau, mentioned the ducal hat and sword in his will. His son and successor, Karl Eusebius (April 11, 1611-April 5, 1684), noted the ducal sword as with him in Prague and in Schloss Feldberg in 1629.

The Liechtenstein ducal sword's last observation occurred in Schloss Feldberg, now Valtice, Czech Republic, in 1629 when the second prince obtained a case for the hilt.

The princely archives provide a third proof, in rings, of the passing and permanent possessions of the princes of Liechtenstein and dukes of Jägendorf and Troppau.

The gouache illustration of "the complete jewelry belonging to the Princely Liechtenstein Primogeniture" ("first-birth [male]") queued up three "finger" rings as items 6, 23 and 24. Correspondence in the princely archives reveals two of the three rings as missing by the time of Joseph Wenzel I's (Aug. 9, 1696-Feb. 10, 1772) death. The inventory after Franz Joseph I's (Nov. 19, 1726-Aug. 18, 1781) death stated that the Liechtenstein ducal hat was not in the ninth prince's entailed collections.

Who took the ducal sword, the Liechtenstein ducal hat and two "finger" rings out of the House of Liechtenstein's princely patrimony how, when, where and why?

Vaduz's Liechtenstein National Museum holds the 1976 replica of Liechtenstein ducal hat, which was presented by people of Liechtenstein, to Prince Franz Joseph II (Aug. 16, 1906-Nov. 13, 1989) for his 70th birthday; Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum (Liechtenstein National Museum), Vaduz, west central Liechtenstein; June 1, 2014: Gryffindor, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Vaduz's Liechtenstein National Museum holds the 1976 replica of Liechtenstein ducal hat, which was presented by people of Liechtenstein, to Prince Franz Joseph II (Aug. 16, 1906-Nov. 13, 1989) for his 70th birthday; Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum (Liechtenstein National Museum), Vaduz, west central Liechtenstein; June 1, 2014: Gryffindor, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herzogshut_Liechtenstein_(1).JPG

For further information:

Dotson, Samuel C. 2003. Genealogie des Fürstlichen Hauses Liechtenstein Seit Hartmann II (1544-1585). Falköping Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books.

Kräftner, Johan; Isabel Kuhl eds. 2004. Liechtenstein Museum: The Princely Collections. Prestel Museum Guides. Munich, Germany; London, England; New York, NY: Prestel.

Svenja. 5 September 2014. "Luxarazzi 101: The Ducal Hat of Liechtenstein." Luxarazzi.
Available @ http://www.luxarazzi.com/2014/09/luxarazzi-101-ducal-hat-of-liechtenstein.html