Existing comment:
Order of the Golden Fleece
1741
German, Dresden
The order of the Golden Fleece, established on January 10, 1430, by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was the most important chivalric order in Europe. It was restricted to Catholic princes and other noblemen, to whom the order's badge contributed great stature. In 1722, Emperor Charles VI dubbed both Augustus the Strong and his son, Frederick Augustus II, knights of the Golden Fleece, which authorized them to commission elaborately jeweled versions of the order's insignia, with its hanging ram's fleece. Frederick Augustus II bought this jacinth-studded example in 1741. The writers of Renaissance lapidaries claimed the glowing red stone could increase wisdom and cure madness. |