IN the late 18th century, Louis XVI of France declared platinum 'the only metal fit for kings', after his royal goldsmith Marc-Etienne Janety fashioned a platinum-and-glass sugar bowl now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, US. Janety was one of the first European silversmiths to master this mysterious metal. In doing so, he set in motion a trend for dazzling platinum designs that transformed the contents of jewellery boxes for centuries to come.
Not only is platinum one of the world's rarest metals, it is also prized for its hardness, brilliance, malleability and resistance to oxidation and corrosion. Ancient Egyptians used platinum-laced gold in burial artefacts and pre-Columbian civilisations worked with platinum alloys. But Spanish conquistadors regarded it as an impurity-naming it platina or 'little silver'. In the 16th century, Italian scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger wrote about a new-found metal 'which no fire nor any Spanish artifice has yet been able to liquefy'. In 1748, in his first observations of platinum, Spanish naval officer Antonio de Ulloa dismissed it as a hindrance that interfered with gold mining. Two years later, British scientist William Brownrigg's detailed account of Colombian platinum samples led to its identification as a new chemical element.
Esta historia es de la edición May 25, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 25, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning