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Frog Service
The Frog Service or Green Frog Service is a large dinner and dessert service made by the English pottery company Wedgwood for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ordered, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. At Catherine's request the hand-painted decoration showed British scenes, copied from prints, with a total of 1,222 views. In addition each piece had a green frog within a shield, a reference to the name of the palace it was intended for. Most unusually for a formal royal service, it was made from Wedgwood's "Queen's ware", the firm's type of creamware or fine earthenware. Normally, large services for royalty and the top nobility were in porcelain, like the Meissen Swan Service, and an imperial order for a large earthenware service was a great coup, representing a landmark in Staffordshire pottery's conquest of European markets. The great majority of pieces are now in the State He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery, "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance the reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain (which Wedgwood only made later) but were considerably cheaper. Wedgwood is especially associated with the "dry-bodied" (unglazed) stoneware Jasperware in contrasting colours, and in particular that in "Wedgwood blue" and white, always much the most popular colours, though there are several others. Jasperware has been made continuously ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring thousands of islands. The country consists of nine traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.4 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras. Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Elphinstone
John Elphinstone, also known as John Elphinston (1722 – 28 February 1785), was a senior British naval officer who worked closely with the Russian Navy after 1770, with approval from the Admiralty, during the period of naval reform under Russian Empress Catherine II. Together with the Scottish-born Samuel Greig, or Samuil Karlovich Greig (Самуил Карлович Грейг), as he was known in Russia, and Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, Elphinstone was a member of the naval staff, headed by Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov, which, although it lacked naval experience, was able to defeat the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Chesma Bay, near Chios Island, off the far western coast of Turkey.((url=https://morethannelson.com/officer/john-elphinstone-1/, title=John Elphinstone, accessdate=6 January 2018)) Early life He was born at Lopness, near Sanday in the Orkney Islands, the son of John Elphinstone and his wife Anne Williams and joined the Royal Navy. He was promoted commander ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Cathcart
Jane Cathcart (born Jane Hamilton; 19 August 1726 – 13 November 1771) was the wife of Lord Cathcart the British ambassador to Russia. She was a personal friend of Catherine the Great and a patron to Josiah Wedgewood. Life Cathcart was born in 1726 in London. Her mother was Lady Jane Hamilton who was said to be the mistress of Frederick, Prince of Wales and she was the second wife of Lord Archibald Hamilton governor of the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich. On 24 July 1753, at her father's Royal Naval Hospital, she married Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart. Her husband was offered the role of Ambassador to Russia despite his lack of diplomatic experience as it was not an attractive appointment. He is thought to have accepted it, because he needed the money. He was there for some years but he made significant mistakes. However Jean fared better and she became a personal friend of Catherine the Great. She told the Empress about the work of her brother, Sir William Hamilton, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly serious and learned admirers of the neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture, intending to complement or even supersede the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws upon features of medieval examples, including decorative patterns, finials, lancet windows, and hood moulds. By the middle of the 19th century, Gothic had become the preeminent architectural style in the Western world, only to fall out of fashion in the 1880s and early 1890s. The Gothic Revival movement's roots are intertwined with philosophical movements associated with Catholicism and a re-awakening of high church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism. Ultimately, the "Anglo-Catholicism" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chesme Church
The Chesme Church (russian: Чесменская церковь; full name ''Church of Saint John the Baptist at Chesme Palace'', also called the ''Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist'', russian: це́рковь Рождества́ Иоа́нна Предте́чи при Че́сменском Дворце́), is a small Russian Orthodox church at 12 Lensoveta Street, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was built by the Russian court architect Yury Felten in 1780, at the direction of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. A memorial church, it was erected adjacent to the Chesme Palace (russian: Чесменский дворец: damaged during the Siege of Leningrad and restored in 1946) between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo to commemorate the anniversary of Russia's 1770 victory over Turkish forces in Chesme Bay ( tr, Çeşme) in the Aegean Sea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. The church and Chesme Palace were the earliest Neo-Gothic construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gothic Architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as ''opus Francigenum'' (lit. French work); the term ''Gothic'' was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity. The defining design element of Gothic architecture is the pointed or ogival arch. The use of the pointed arch in turn led to the development of the pointed rib vault and flying buttresses, combined with elaborate tracery and stained glass windows. At the Abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, the choir was reconstructed between 1140 and 1144 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prodigy House
Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the periods of Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean architecture, though the term may be restricted to a core period of roughly 1570 to 1620. Many of the grandest were built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her large retinue as they made their annual royal progress around her realm. Many are therefore close to major roads, often in the English Midlands. The term originates with the architectural historian Sir John Summerson, and has been generally adopted. He called them "...the most daring of all English buildings." The houses fall within the broad style of Renaissance architecture, but represent a distinctive English take on the style, mainly reliant on books for their knowledge of developments on the Continent. Andrea Palladio (1508–1580 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the northeast and Berkshire to the east. The county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the county town of Trowbridge. Within the county's boundary are two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, governed respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles (which together are a UNESCO Cultural and World Heritage site) and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its medieval cathedral. Swindon is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longford Castle
Longford Castle stands on the banks of the River Avon south of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It is the seat of the Earl of Radnor, and an example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. History In 1573 Thomas Gorges acquired the manor (at the time written "Langford"), which was originally owned by the Servington (or Cervington) family.Jacob Radnor, ''A Huguenot Family 1536–1889'' Prior to this the existing mansion house had been damaged by fire. In c.1576 Thomas Gorges married Helena Snakenborg, the Swedish born dowager Marchioness of Northampton and Lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth. They rebuilt the Longford property as a triangular Swedish pattern castle on the banks of the River Avon. The building work became very expensive due to problems with the subsoil. Sir Thomas Gorges, who was now governor of Hurst Castle, persuaded his wife to beg of the Queen a shipwreck he knew from the defeated Spanish Armada. The gift was granted and the gold and silver retrieved from the shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsarskoe Selo
Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the town of Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo forms one of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. The town bore the name Tsarskoe Selo until 1918, Detskoe Selo ( ru , Детское Село , translation = Children's Village) between in the years 1918–1937, then Pushkin ( ru , Пушкин) from 1937 onwards. History The area of Tsarskoye Selo, once part of Swedish Ingria, first became a Russian royal/imperial residence in the early 18th century as an estate of the Empress-consort Catherine (later Empress-regnant as Catherine I, ), from whom the Catherine Palace takes its name. The Alexander Palace (built from 1792 onwards) originated as the ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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