August Nordenskiöld

[Paul Ferguson]

An alchemical furnace from the Nordic Museum’s collections is one of few remaining artifacts from the 18th century alchemist and mineralogist August Nordenskiöld. Employed to produce gold for Swedish king Gustav III, Nordenskiöld had a subversive counter-agenda of making the secret of alchemy open to all, and thereby ending the ”tyranny of money”.

Goldin+Senneby have produced an instruction manual, offering collectors a license to reproduce the 18th century alchemical furnace that belonged to August Nordenskiöld. The replica instruction manual exists in a numbered but unlimited edition, where the price increases for each edition sold; making it increasingly expensive to decrease the rarity of the artwork.

The alchemical furnace was first copied during a solo exhibition at Crystal, Stockholm (2012), including a magic performance at Drottningholm Castle Theatre. The replica instruction manual was first presented at Frieze NY the same year. Manual ed 3 is in the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris, since 2016.


https://goldinsenneby.com/practice/money...ike-dross/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Nordenski%C3%B6ld
https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/...denskiold/    

Adam, I'm sure the images from Darmstadt which you posted the other day are linked to Gustav III of Sweden, who employed Nordenskiöld. Gustav is mentioned in the notes after the images.

[Paul Ferguson]

"[Gustav III] was not the possessor of a strong character, but this defect was due, in a great measure, to his early education, or, rather, to the lack of proper training and to the fact that his home influences were inimical to the development of a manly disposition. This will also account, in part, at any rate, for his falling a ready prey to charlatans and swindlers, such as Bjornram, a disciple of Cagliostro ; Haledin, another follower of Cagliostro, who had been sentenced to death for high treason, but who obtained ready audience of Gustavus (who was instrumental in securing his release), because he explained mesmerism in the light of the Swedenborgian philosophy ; Ulfenklows - astrologer, chiromancer, geomancer, hydromancer and spiritist ; Palmstrich, "the true Theosophist by the grace of God " and alchemist, who lived in the perpetual hope of discovering the philosopher's stone ; and Nordenskjold, who actually persuaded the king to fit up a laboratory near Drottningholm, for the making of gold. R. Nisbet Bain, in Gustavus III and His Contemporaries, vol . i, pp . 228-9, has given us the record by an eye-witness of a dark seance held in a cathedral and of the trickery performed in connexion therewith . There was also Boheman who, for a short time, exerted an inimical influence upon both Gustavus III and the Duke of Sudermania . Count Oxenstjerna says that the King " seldom attended the meetings of Grand Lodge, but remained alone in his silent abode, where, unnoticed, he employed himself in the study of his secret art and very rarely did he confide even to his intimate friends the result of his investigations, agitating, as he did, questions beyond the sphere of natural philosophy and coming into the regions of the occult sciences .""

From 'Gould's History of Freemasonry', vol. III, pp. 227-8

[Paul Ferguson]

Here's the section from Bain referred to above:
           

[Paul Ferguson]

This is a very harsh judgement of Cagliostro, but it gives me an opportunity to tout one of my translations:

https://www.lewismasonic.co.uk/esoteric/...master.htm