Monkey Business
Imagine a banquet at the 18th-century Dresden court: an orchestra plays, a table bedecked with crystal and silver and huge porcelain centrepieces glitters and gleams, candlelight flickers as diners take their seats. Then something intriguing draws their eye. Groups of small figurines of monkeys playing musical instruments and singing parade along the table. ‘They were meant to be an ice-breaker at a dinner. If you were one of 200 people at court you might not know the people you were seated with, so they were there not just
