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FORGOTTEN GLOBALISM: THE HISTORY OF INFLUENCES IN 18TH CENTURY SWEDEN, AS TOLD BY A

SILVER TEAPOT Final Senior Seminar Essay

GEORGIA GILBERT

HIST498: Curious Things

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The history of globalism in early modern Western Europe is easily represented by the

goods that helped to build the wealth of these countries and the objects created to handle them.

Because people die, objects are often the only things that remain from the early modern period.

They represent three-dimensional snapshots of time, and the experiences of all who come in

contact with them between this very moment and the moment the idea of the object was formed.

Tea, one of the most predominant and influential imports to Western Europe, is a resource that

inspired the creation of masterwork objects; the introduction of tea into Western society from

China in the 17th century by the Dutch East India Trading Company sparked such a craze that the

effects have led to the word “tea” to be almost synonymous with certain Western cultures. In the

art of utility, the teapot soon became an incredibly well-explored form of expression by both

artists and cosmopolitan aristocrats. The history of both tea and Enlightenment art forms has

been analyzed extensively in the most influential countries of the 18th century, but this hardly

does justice to the extent of the impact of tea on all Western European societies and the objects

produced as a result.

Sweden, rising far above the European continent and brushing the Arctic Circle, is not

often discussed as being a major player in Europe in the 18th century; with a population of only

1.15 million in 1700 it was the largest Nordic country in terms of people but could not compete

with the 5.6 million population in England at the same time.1 Too, tea is not as influential in

modern Sweden as coffee, and Sweden did not produce any incredibly unique baroque or rococo

art styles.2 As a result the history of tea and the art tied to it is not often analyzed in depth. This is

surprising since Sweden boasts some of the most interesting French style silver teapots in the

world after numerous French wars and a massive revolution led to the loss or destruction of

1 Nordstrom, 80. 2 The Chamber of Commerce of East Sweden: Coffee, Tea and Cocoa, 4.

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millions of invaluable historical silver and gold artifacts from this period. Swedish silversmith

Andréas Lorentzon Wall’s masterpiece – a silver teapot decorated with labyrinthine

ornamentation and dazzling scrollwork – is one such surviving piece; in its lines lies an

unwritten history of Swedish cosmopolitanism and French influence during the 18th century.

To read this teapot as a physical representation of the story of its creation, we must first ask:

who was it created for and why? Currently, the teapot belongs to the Hallwyl museum, or

Hallwylska museet, in Stockholm, Sweden. The museum had been the home of the Von Hallwyl

family of Switzerland – one of Europe’s oldest families – and all of the pieces in the museum

belong to the collection of the late Wilhelmina and Walther von Hallwyl who died in the inter-

war years of the early 20th century. They were one of Sweden’s largest collectors of objects from

all around the world, and their entire collection as well as their home was donated to the Swedish

State in 1920 under the condition that the house and its contents were to remain fundamentally

unchanged.3 The teapot itself, however is older than the museum and the Hallwyl collection –

dating to the early 18th century. From the information provided by the Hallwyl Museum archives,

the teapot had previously been owned by Swedish engineer Carl Robert Lamm (1856-1938),

Swedish Prime Minister Arvid Rutger Posse (1820-1901), and a man named Axel Jakob De la

Guardie is listed as the first owner of the teapot.4

As the oldest owners, the De la Guardie family is where we must turn to learn the story of

Swedish ties to other countries in Europe in 1720. The De la Guardie family was an influential

“new money” aristocratic Swedish family; they were not as powerful as old Swedish families

such as Vasa, Sparre, and Brahe, but they were closely tied to French nobility and aristocracy as

well as significant enough to marry into old Swedish families. Pontus De la Guardie immigrated

3 “The Hallwyl House” 4 “Tekanna”

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to Sweden from France in the middle of the 16th century.5 He entered into Swedish military

service and became very important, eventually marrying an illegitimate daughter of King John

III of Sweden.6 Their son, Jakob, married into the Brahe family and also held a very successful

military career in which he personally taught “the art of war” to Gustavus I Adolphus the Great

of Sweden.7 For this he was given a hereditary earldom (jarl in Swedish) in the beginning of the

17th century.8

There is only one problem with the archival information: there is no record of any existence

of a man named Axel Jakob in the De la Guardie family of Sweden in the 18th century. This is

most certainly an error – while there is no Axel Jakob, there is an Axel Julius who lived during

this time period. However, there are still a few discrepancies that throw his ownership into

question. Firstly, Axel Julius De la Guardie died in 1710 – a decade too early to have owned a

piece completed in 1720. Creating a silver teapot in the 18th century, even at this level of

craftsmanship, did not take 10 years to complete.9 And secondly, there is absolutely no way Axel

could have afforded such a lavish creation.

The De la Guardie family was financially ruined during the reign of Charles XI because of

the 1680 reduktion – the forced return of gifts made by the crown to aristocracy.10 As one

historian put it, “Charles XI’s reduktion hit the [sic] De la Guardies harder than any other family

among the [Swedish] nobility.”11 Axel Julius De la Guardie’s father, a great patron of the arts in

Sweden, was fined around 35,000 riksdaler.12 While the true value of this amount is impossible

5 Lindstrom, 90. 6 Roberts, Greatness, 203. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 “Journeyman silversmith” 10 Roberts, Greatness, 235-237. 11 Ibid., 234. 12 Ibid., 236.

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to convert into modern currency, we can estimate that the buying power of £1 in 1720 is the

rough equivalent of £130.40 in 2013.13 As of 1:24PM PST 27 February 2015, the conversion rate

on google between GBP and USD was 0.71025%. This gives us a very rough estimate of 1

pound of silver (£1) in 1720 having the purchasing power of around $201 in modern US

currency. Swedish currency, the riksdaler in particular, had a value of 4.44 to £1 in 1709.14

Because this is a very rough estimate, we will assume that this value does not change too much

within an 11 year period (though this is highly unlikely to be the case). Under this assumption,

the De la Guardie family’s fine of 35,000 riksdaler very roughly estimates to around $1.45

million (US) today.

This act completely devastated the De la Guardie family. The price that this teapot would

have fetched – being a masterpiece of French style silversmithing – could not have been afforded

by Axel Julius De la Guardie and the meagre fortune he inherited from his father. What is more

likely is that the piece was actually commissioned by the son of Axel Julius, Magnus Julius. The

De la Guardie family only owned one very small estate until Magnus Julius married Hedvig

Catharina Lilje, granddaughter of the incredibly wealthy Swedish aristocrat Fabian Wrede, in

1709. Hedvig helped to restore the former glory of the De la Guardie family by bringing with

her, “no fewer than eighteen manors as her dowry.”15 This increase in fortune would have

allowed for a much more lavish lifestyle, including the commission or purchase of Andréas

Wall’s masterpiece.

Another important indicator for the ownership of Magnus Julius De la Guardie and his wife

are their heavy ties to France. This would explain why a teapot was created in the French style

13 Officer, MeasuringWorth. 14 Paritius, 316. 15 Ibid., 235.

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when the French style would not be popular in Sweden

for another decade at least: it was only in the 1730s

when Swedish artists really began to travel to and study

in France in droves and French artists began to practice

their trade in Sweden.16 But Magnus had earlier ties to

France through family, military connections, and as a

member of the “Hat” party in the Swedish

parliament whose aristocratic members were backed

by France and whose policy demanded a strong alliance

with the French government.17 His wife Hedvig, a

popular socialite in Stockholm, opened a French-style

salon, “where Francophile Swedish politicians and

French diplomats” would get together to discuss issues related to Franco-Swedish politics.18 It

was even rumored around this time that Hedvig had taken as her lover the French ambassador

Charles Louis de Biaudos (Count de Casteja), who heavily represented the De la Guardie family

and protected their interests in France.19 Both were open Francophiles, and began their affinity

for French influence long before the rise in popularity of French style art in Sweden.

Now we have two possibilities for potential buyers: Magnus and Hedvig. Even if the head of

house – Magnus – is listed as the owner this does not necessarily mean that he truly owned it.

Women were mostly in the minority for account books of domestic or expensive purchases in

16 Wahlberg, 138. 17 Wolff, 259. 18 Ibid. 19 Lindström, 93.

1: Magnus Julius De la Guardie

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18th century Western Europe even if the objects bought were intended for their use.20 A woman

could use the name of her husband, or a husband could purchase something as a gift for his wife

and use his own name. Tea and the ceremony of tea unquestionably evolved into a very feminine

activity over the 18th century, and women were often thought of as the owners of tea service.21

The time period in which this teapot was created, however, still allowed a kind of gender

neutrality towards tea that would soon vanish. Even so, it was considered acceptable in

aristocratic society for men to enjoy objects thought of as feminine.22 Tea was first introduced to

Europe from China around 1610 through the Dutch East India Company and was considered an

unusual medicinal drink.23 Its popularity was limited at first, sold only in apothecaries and coffee

houses.24 During this time, tea was popular with upper class gentlemen because of its ties to the

“alternative sciences”; consuming products such as tea symbolized a knowledge of foreign

cultures through the understanding of unusual or alien objects – an accomplishment that was

considered very respectable within the upper classes.25 If we look to the teapot’s material – silver

– this could indicate the owner as Magnus rather than Hedvig since silver was seen as masculine

while ceramic or porcelain was quite feminine.26

Now we know who would have commissioned or bought this teapot, but why? How does a

teapot fit in to the household of a rich Swedish Enlightenment era aristocrat? Despite Sweden

usually being overshadowed by their southern European counterparts, its aristocracy and capital

were quite globalized during the 18th century. Following the fashionable European example,

Swedish aristocrats were highly educated in politics and the arts, and were well-travelled, with

20 Vickery, 282-284. 21 Vickery, 273. 22 Ibid., 278. 23 Henmarck, 143. 24 Moxham, 90. 25 Hohenegger, 148. 26 Vickery, 303.

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especial ties to the Netherlands and France.27 Trade was an important aspect of Swedish society,

and tea as an exotic link to the East was an integral aspect of trade in the beginning of the 1700s.

This exoticism of tea was not to be maintained, however. One of the most prevailing ideas in

the early modern period was that while imperialism would help to domesticate foreign lands to

adopt “civilized” culture as their own, imported exotic goods also had to be domesticated so as to

fit into the mold of proper and respectable Western society and culture.28 With this idea growing

in popularity across an ever-expanding West, “Consumer Revolutions” began throughout Europe

at the end of the 17th century. 29 These were absolutely tied to tea, coffee, and chocolate, as well

as other consumables. Increase in global trade through the formation and growing power of the

East India Trading Companies helped to exponentially increase demand.

In Sweden specifically, commerce and trade became integral to Swedish culture in the

beginning of the 17th century. Swedes had a particular fascination with the Netherlands and their,

“uncanny ability to win wars and get rich...”30 The Dutch model of commercial trade did not

always suit Sweden, but Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (1583-1654) still emulated and

adapted Dutch models to suit Swedish culture; this resulted in a massively successful

administrative body emulated by countries all across Europe that linked specific mercantile

interests with governance called the Swedish College of Commerce.31 A Swedish East India

Trading Company had been planned in the late 1660s, but only saw formation in 1729 by

Swedish merchant Henrik Konig with the help of foreign capital and shunned English and Dutch

stockholders of other East India Trading Companies.32 Though it was established with foreign

27 Wolff, 2. 28 Hohenegger, 148. 29 Ibid., 192. 30 Thomson, 333. 31 Thomson, 343. 32 De Lannoy, 37.

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funds and through foreign initiative, it was soon controlled by Swedish natives – “many of whom

belonged to the aristocracy.”33 Too, tea smuggling to the American colonies was especially

prevalent in Sweden so as to avoid heavy English taxes.34 Clearly, the importance of tea in

Sweden exploded in the beginning of the 18th century, right along with other Western European

countries deemed to be influential and important, such as France, the Netherlands and England.

Because tea had no previous history in Sweden, nor anywhere in Western Europe,

silversmiths like Andréas Wall created commissions of tea service based on Chinese, and later

French, English and German models.35 They chose to accentuate forms whose utility and

popularity was proven over the creation of something cutting-edge. This was the same in many

aspects of art during the time period, which is reflected in silversmithing. The quality of Swedish

silverware is, on the whole, above average and was mostly made for the use of wealthy

individuals.36 The Swedish mountains along the border of Norway were incredibly rich in metal

veins including iron and silver, and mining was a long-lasting export.37 Working with metal,

then, was not unfamiliar to many Swedes and led immensely to the wealth of many aristocratic

families which in turn allowed them to spend lavishly on fabulous things for display.

The 17th and 18th centuries in Europe were famous for the extravagance that extended into

almost all aspects of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. In art, this period begins with the

baroque style inspired by a counter-reaction of the Catholic Church to the spreading influence of

Lutheranism throughout Europe during the Reformation.38 The Church’s call for even grander

religious objects for veneration to prove their faith set the artists of Italy, and later Europe, on an

33 Roberts, 275. 34 Moxham, 46. 35 Andrén, 48. 36 Hernmarck, 37. 37 Nordstrom, 127. 38 Schloder, 11.

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ostentatious journey of vibrancy, wealth, and innovation within their work. The baroque period

in art reached its peak just before the death of King Louis XIV of France in 1715. The Régence

period followed when a reagent ruled France until 1723 when Louis XV became old enough to

take the crown. It was Louis XV who ushered in the rococo style in art, attempting to recapture

the magnificence of his father’s art collections.

Louis XIV was arguably one of the most well-known patrons of the arts, and massively

influenced styles and tastes of the nobility and aristocracy for centuries afterwards. It was Louis

XIV who built the Palace at Versailles, began the trend for “white tie” in men’s fashion, and

supported hundreds of French artists. He was particularly fond of surrounding himself with

priceless objects of silver and gold, including furniture.39 Sadly, many of his commissioned

pieces have been lost because he had, “an unhappy passion for warfare, and wars cost money.”40

Interestingly, Magnus Julius De la Guardie had fought under Louis in one such war – the War of

the Spanish Succession in 1709 – in which irreplaceable and priceless masterpieces of silver and

gold were melted down to pay the heavy price of maintaining an army.41 The aristocracy were

urged to follow the example of the king by melting down their silver and gold pieces and giving

that money to the cause.42 Because of this, and the later French Revolution, most pieces from

Louis XIV’s collection are now lost. This makes surviving pieces around the world, like Wall’s

masterpiece, incredibly important.

39 Hernmark, 7. 40 Ibid., 8. 41 Lindström, 93. 42 Hernmarck, 9.

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Its pricelessness is extended by just how

difficult it is to categorize it stylistically. What we

can see is that it’s an amazing example of silver in

the French style of the era, like most Swedish

silver beginning in the 1730s.43 There are some

elements taken from Augsburg style as well,

particularly the fluting along the sides and the

dragon’s head spout.44 This is the point when

identification becomes a bit fuzzy. While ornate, the teapot does not have the same ostentatious

ornamentation that is a clear indicator of baroque. Its scrollwork decorations are somewhat

reminiscent of silver pieces produced during Régence; this would make sense since in both

Sweden and France 1720 was a year of hesitance. In France the French Reagent ruled and

commissioned far less artwork than the dead king, and in Sweden the death of Charles XII in

1718 resulted in the collapse of the Swedish Empire at the end of the Great Northern War (1700-

1721) against Russia.45 Despite this, the ornamentation and motifs on Wall’s masterpiece are too

pronounced to be clearly Régence, which favored much more muted decoration seen in the

scrollwork. Neither does it give the same kind of air of restraint nor hesitation as a whole that

stems from Régence works even though it was created during this time. In overall style it seems

to set the middle ground between the opulence from the height of baroque and the flamboyant

sophistication of rococo leaning heavily towards the latter. On the other hand, the piece is very

early to be firmly declared rococo even though it leans stylistically in this direction.

43 Andrén, 48. 44 Ibid., 146. 45 Nordstrom, Scandinavia, 77.

2: Detailing of Andreas Lorentzon Wall's masterpiece teapot. Hallwylska museet. (CC BY-SA)

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The motifs that run along the bottom are another matter entirely. They are possibly one of the

most interesting aspects of the piece because of their ties to neoclassicism that developed at the

end of the 18th century. The motifs depict six scenes from classical author Ovid’s epic,

Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a great poetic masterpiece that tells the history of the world

until Caesar’s death in Rome and has influenced many writers and artists throughout time and

space such as Shakespeare, Titian, and Chaucer. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell which

scenes are chosen in a single, hazy photograph, but their focus on sexuality is obvious. Ovid’s

epic was a particular favorite among baroque/rococo artists and many themes were inspired by it,

so it is no wonder that Wall, wanting to present classical scenes, chose this work to portray in the

motifs.46 But while the classics were certainly a popular theme in traditional art forms during the

baroque and rococo periods, and even more so in the neoclassical period, the portrayal of

classical scenes in silverwork is incredibly rare to our knowledge. Scenes of nature, or images

linked to family are much more common. Andréas Wall appears to have captured the essence of

all forms of art through the whole of the 18th century in a single, 23 cm teapot.

Let us imagine, then, how the different facets of this teapot speak. Each contour

representative of something greater than itself: a masterpiece of 18th century art as well as a

masterpiece of familiar utility. Through images it hints at the aesthetics of European aristocracy

during the Enlightenment age. This piece stands a perfect, silent counter-argument to those who

might argue that Sweden was not as tied to influential Western European countries in the early

1700s. Its curves whisper the tales of one Swedish family’s ties to France, showing the globalism

and cosmopolitanism of an often-ignored city in Western histories. This teapot is the

embodiment of Sweden’s Age of Liberty and suggests that even though Sweden’s empire had

46 Schloder, 49.

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fallen early, maybe empire and written histories are not what makes a country great. Perhaps

most importantly it proposes that greatness can be represented in the smallest of things and

comes with the ability to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

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Images

Cover: "Tekanna." Photograph. Hallwyl Museum Archives. Accessed February 23, 2015.

http://emuseumplus.lsh.se/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection

&objectId=16426&viewType=detailView

Figure 1: http://sok.riksarkivet.se/SBL/Presentation.aspx?id=17382

Figure 2: "Tekanna." Photograph. Hallwyl Museum Archives. Accessed February 23, 2015.

http://emuseumplus.lsh.se/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection

&objectId=16426&viewType=detailView