PRESS INFORMATION
An Overview of the Exhibits
State Crown of George I
1715
The Royal Collection
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
For the coronation of the Elector of Hanover George Louis as the
new king of Great Britain and Ireland a new crown was made. In
keeping with tradition, much of the decoration for the new crown
was copied from the old Stuart crown. The State Crown of George I
was worn by the monarch for the annual Opening of Parliament
and was also used for almost all coronations for members of the
house of Hanover (George I, George II, George III and William IV).
The State Crown of George I was replaced in 1838 by the new
Imperial State Crown of Queen Victoria.
Robert-Joseph Auguste, Paris (1723-1825)
Frantz Peter Bundsen, Hannover (um 1725-1795)
The George III Hanover Dinner Service.
1781-1797, Silver
Rothschild Foundation (National Trust, Waddesdon
Manor/Buckinghamshire, Swindon)
King George III commissioned this valuable neoclassical style service
for his court in Hanover from the 1770s. The French goldsmith
Robert-Joseph Auguste created the silver ensemble in Paris, which
was then copied and doubled in quantity by the local court
goldsmith, Frantz Peter Bundsen. During the period when Hanover
was occupied by the French, the silver service was removed to Great
Britain and so could be used by George III in person for the first
time. After the end of the Napoleonic War, the service was returned
to Hanover and remained there until it was sold at the start of the
20th Century. For the first time since the service was divided up
between different collections in Europe and America, items are
being reunited to Hanover for the State Exhibition of Lower Saxony.
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Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)
Queen Charlotte with her two Eldest Sons
ca.1764-9, Oil on canvas, 247,8 x 165 cm
The Royal Collection
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
The painting by British court artist Allan Ramsay shows the wife of
King George III, Queen Charlotte, together with her two eldest
children, the later King George IV (standing) and Prince Frederick.
The royal couple had 15 children together, with whom they lived an
almost normal bourgeois life, taking a strong interest in their
upbringing. This wonderful group portrait of mother and sons at the
spinet shows the educational pretensions of the royal couple even in
the earliest years of their family's life. A copy of John Locke's book
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) lies on the
instrument, alongside a sewing basket that had obviously been
shortly beforehand.
The golden letter from the Burmese King Alungphaya to King
George II
7th May 1756
Letter: Gold sheet, rubies; Container: Ivory
55 x 12 cm (letter)
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek – Lower Saxony State
Library, Hanover
This is the letter, written on pure gold and decorated with
exquisite Burmese rubies, in which, in 1756, the Burmese King
Alungphaya proposed to King George II the founding of a
trading colony within his realm. The container is made from a
hollowed out tusk of an Indian elephant. The letter took almost
two years to complete its journey from Burma to London, but it
failed to interest the King and was sent to Hanover to be added
to his medal collection. The golden letter is unique both in its
form and its content. The 2014 State Exhibition particularly
emphasises its uniqueness: for the first time ever, George II's
golden letter is being displayed together with a gilded parchment
letter dating from 1764, which is currently held by the British
Library.
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John Wootton (1682-1764)
King George II at the Battle of Dettingen, with the Duke of
Cumberland and Robert, 4th Earl of Holderness
1743, Oil on canvas, 142 x 158 cm
National Army Museum, London
During the Austrian War of Succession (1740-48), British-Hanoverian
troops fought on the side of the Austrian Hapsburgs against France.
As Commander-in-chief, George II personally led his troops into
battle on the 27th June 1743 at Dettingen (near Aschaffenburg).
This was the last time that a reigning British monarch went to battle
in person. The victorious participation of the King in Dettingen was
captured by John Wootton in this military group portrait, depicting
George II with his youngest and favourite son, the Duke of
Cumberland, in front of the active battlefield.
Certificate of the Act of Settlement
28.06.1701, Parchment, 2 sheets, each 90 x 75 cm
Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv Hanover
The Act of Settlement, passed by the English Parliament in 1701,
established the Protestant succession to the throne in the kingdom
of England. The law favoured the nearest non-Catholic relations of
the reigning Stuart king and established the Electress of Hanover,
Sophie, and her descendants as successors to the throne. In the
exhibition, the certificate that was ceremoniously handed to the
Electress Sophie in Hanover, marks a decisive step on the path
towards the personal union.
Feather effigy ki´i hulu manu, Hawaii
2nd half of the18th century
Willow, feathers, mother of pearl, dogs' teeth, wood
46.5 x 16 x 7.5 cm
Ethnological collection of the University of Göttingen
The feather effigy, which is used in processions to honour the gods,
and which accompanied military campaigns, is one of a small group
of feather sculptures acquired in Hawaii during James Cook's third
exploratory voyage of the world. Together with approximately 350
other ethnographica the object fell into the hands of Professor
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach at the University of Göttingen. Since
1782, these exhibits have been part of the comprehensive
Cook/Forster Collection that is still maintained in Göttingen, and
which constitutes a unique example of the academic exchange
between Great Britain and the Electorate.
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Sir James Thornhill (1676-1734)
2 panels from Royal State Coach for George I
ca.1718, Öl on wood and wood on canvas,
54 x 60.2 x 2.6 / 54 x 60.2 x 1.8 cm
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Throughout the duration of the personal union, coaches were an
important means of displaying power and pretensions. The new
Hanoverian dynasty also wanted to make use of this significant
medium, and commissioned court painter, James Thornhill, to
design a suitable decorative display for the State Coach. Both panels
depict the royal coat of arms surrounded by personifications of the
virtues and arts, which should illustrate clearly the pretensions of the
Hanoverian rulers. In both panels, the white Guelph steed on a red
background is clearly recognisable.
John Northam (1765-1849)
for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, London
Ceremonial staff for the hereditary Lord Marshall of the Kingdom
of Hanove
1816, Gold, enamel, 64.8 cm
Privately owned
On the 12th August 1814, the Prince Regent George (IV)
elevated the long-serving cabinet minister and minister of state,
Ernst Herbert Reichgraf zu Münster (1766-1839) to the title of
hereditary Lord Marshall of Hanover. With this promotion, Zu
Münster was given the job of presiding over the newly formed
Hanoverian parliament, the Allgemeine Ständeversammlung, and
successfully represented the interests of Hanover at the Congress
of Vienna. The Electorate was granted significant new lands and
elevated to a kingdom. In 1817, the Prince Regent awarded the
count a magnificent enamelled Lord Marshall's staff made of
gold. At one end it is topped by the English lion standing upon
the English crown, at the other by the Hanoverian steed upon
the Hanoverian crown.
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Reflecting telescope by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel
ca.1785,
Wooden tube, in a wooden frame with casters
Length 3 m, Diameter 27 cm, in a moveable
wooden frame
Georg August University, Institute of Astrophysics, Observatory
Collection, Göttingen
Photo: K. Reinsch
As the Electors of Hanover, the British kings were also the Rectors of
the local University of Göttingen. George III, through his three
youngest sons, who came to the university as students in 1786,
gave the university a gift of a reflecting telescope constructed
according to the method of Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel. Herschel
(1738-1822), who was born in Hanover, had emigrated to Great
Britain in 1757 and had discovered the planet Uranus with a similar
telescope in 1781. Herschel installed the Göttingen telescope
himself in September 1786.
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