Tag Archive: egypt
By Jed Z. Buchwald and
Diane Greco Josefowicz
In August 1799, Napoleon returned to France from an ill-fated imperial adventure in Egypt, leaving behind a demoralized force headed by Jean-Baptiste Kléber, the Revolutionary hero shortly to be assassinated in Cairo. “L’oiseau était déniché” was how the disappointed Kleber described Napoleon’s departure: The bird had flown the coop.
In France, Napoleon touted the campaign as a triumph despite the late debacles at Acre and in Aboukir Bay, where not only lives but also the expedition’s greatest prize, the Rosetta Stone, were lost. Back home in France, his propaganda touched off a wave of popular enthusiasm for all things Egyptian. This “Egyptomania” was additionally fueled by the publication of compelling eye-witness travelers’ accounts, such as the artist Vivant Denon’s illustrated Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte.
These immensely popular publications provided rich sources of imagery for fine and decorative artists. Wallpapers featuring Egyptian motifs, furniture carved with Egyptian emblems, and variations on themes from Egyptian architecture (including the 1806 peristyle of the Hôtel de Beauharnais in Paris) flooded French homes and buildings.
Perhaps the strangest—certainly the most fragile—of these artifacts was the “Egyptian Service,” a 115-piece, Egyptian-themed porcelain dinner service commissioned from the Sèvres porcelain factory by Napoleon in 1804. Using Denon’s and others’ drawings as inspiration, the designs were produced by one Lepére, an architect who had served on Napoleon’s expedition. (Denon’s drawings were also featured on the set’s seventy-two plates, including one that bore the image of the Dendera zodiac, the central subject of our book.) Most magnificent of all, the set included porcelain models of the temples of Dendera, Edfou, and Philae, as well as the colossi of Memnon, and even a colonnade of rams leading to a replica of the temple at Luxor (ancient Thebes).
Despite the difficulty of fabricating these objects, and despite Napoleon’s exigent demand that the result be “of the first, not the second order,” the Sèvres company was pressured to work quickly, lest they lose the imperial imprimatur and with it, their position as Europe’s premier porcelain manufacturer. An initial set of plates, decorated in rich blue and gold, appeared in relatively short order at the end of 1805.
The first complete service, including the magnificent replica temples, was produced in 1808, and sent by Napoleon to Czar Alexander as a gift; it is today exhibited at the Kuskowo ceramics museum in Moscow. Napoleon ordered a second set as a divorce gift to Josephine, who rejected it as too severe for her taste. It was later given to the Duke of Wellington, and it can be seen today at his residence, Apsley House, in London.
Jed Z. Buchwald is the Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology. His books include The Creation of Scientific Effects: Heinrich Hertz and Electric Waves. Diane Greco Josefowicz teaches in the writing program at Boston University. They are co-authors of The Zodiac of Paris: How an Improbable Controversy over an Ancient Egyptian Artifact Provoked a Modern Debate between Religion and Science
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IMAGE: Photograph of a replica temple in the Sèvres tea service, from the set in London.
Congratulations to the following W & M winners of this book:
Sheri, Evelyn, and Chris
By Melissa L.
On a discussion board for writers of historical fiction, I recently came across the question “What qualifies as historical?” It’s actually a lot trickier than it sounds. Everybody agrees that ancient Egypt and World War I are historical, but what about the Vietnam War? Where do we cross the line from history to modern times?
It’s always important to note that kids and adults have very different perceptions of history. You probably think of the events of September 11, 2001 as fairly recent, but the 8 to 12 year olds you’re writing for don’t remember that day—if they were even born. Furthermore, kids are learning about events like this in history class, and what seems like yesterday to you might as well be the Middle Ages to them.
At its most basic level, historical means “set in the past.” I take the definition one step further, saying that a book is only historical if it needs to be set in the past for the sake of the plot. If you’re writing about soldiers wounded in Vietnam, it’s fine to set your book in 1973 and say it’s historical. Similarly, if your plot cannot take place in any year other than 2001, I would call that a historical novel. What you should never do is set your book in the past because that’s when you were young and you don’t know what it’s like to be a kid today. If your story could take place in 2009 as easily as 1985, go do some research about the modern day.
In the end, we need to think about what the term “historical fiction” really means. Is it simply about the date? (And if it is, is there a particular year that should be considered a cutoff?) Or is it about the way the time relates to the story?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
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