Posted on 03/22/2007 7:51:09 PM PDT by blam
How 'Mad' King George's heirs put the Empire together one piece at a time
By Caroline Davies
Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 23/03/2007
Kew Palace slotted an important piece of its royal history back into place yesterday when it unveiled a cabinet of jigsaw maps used to teach King George III's children.
This jigsaw map of Scotland is one of many used to teach geography to King George III's children
The mahogany cabinet houses a collection of dissected maps – precursors of the jigsaw puzzle – and was a main feature in the nursery at Kew, the King's main home, in the mid-1700s.
It was through assembling the carved wooden pieces that a young George IV and William IV first learned the geography of Europe, the Empire, Africa and the American colonies they believed they would one day head.
With their father chiefly remembered for going mad from porphyria and losing America, however, ruling those colonies was not to be. But the treasure, ordered for her royal charges by their devoted governess, Lady Charlotte Finch, was almost lost.
Hidden for centuries, it passed through her family into a private collection and was snapped up by a foreign buyer in 2000 who wished to export it to the US. Today it is back in its rightful place after the Government placed an export ban on the maps.
The Art Fund charity stumped up the £120,000 to buy the cabinet and contents and donated it to Kew Palace and the V&A's Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, east London. Rarely seen – it was once put on public view in the 1920s – it will now be displayed at both venues at different times.
A note pinned inside the cabinet records its royal provenance and claims Lady Charlotte Finch was "the inventor of dissecting maps … always used in teaching Geography to George the fourth, his Brothers and sisters".
However, Sebastian Edwards, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said: "Recent research would seem to indicate she has overstated her claim". Of the 16 maps, a few were made by the engraver John Spilbury in the 1760s, others were hand-drawn by Lady Charlotte or the royal children, but the majority are of French origin.
It is likely Lady Charlotte got the idea from an acquaintance – a Madame Le Prince de Beaumont, a French governess living in London.
"It is wonderful to see these little pieces of history returning to Kew, where we imagine the royal children and their beloved governess would have played and learned from them," said Mr Edwards.
David Barrie, director of The Art Fund, said rescuing the cabinet and maps had been "a big victory".
"This extraordinary cabinet contains some of the earliest jigsaw maps in existence showing us the world as it would have been seen by the young George IV."
The cabinet and maps will be on show in the Breakfast Room at Kew from March 24.
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