BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.- The Royal Museums of Art and History present A Pastime Worthy of a King - The factories of Charles of Lorraine, on view through September 2, 2007. Like all other enlightened princes of his time Charles of Lorraine (1712-1780), the general governor of the Austrian Netherlands, had a passion for the sciences, unusual objects and inventions, and he arranged cabinets of curiosities especially for them. One of the greater events of the XVIIIth century was the publication in Paris by Diderot and d'Alembert of the Encyclopaedia, the Dictionnary raisonn� of sciences, the arts and trades, that explained in particular, based on illustrations, manufacturing techniques and their applications. The fashion of these novelties had a considerable influence on the taste of princes who took a liking for them and integrated workshops into their domains. At the end of the 1750s, Charles of Lorraine had a big building built in the park or Tervueren to install factories that were extremely active.

The Europe of factories - All of Europe was fascinated by the decoration techniques of the Orient, their printed silks and cottons, the Chinese porcelains and wallpaper. In order to imitate these luxurious materials, Europeans created factories in France, England and Germany. The economic policy Charles of Lorraine and his ambassadors applied favored the development of these factories of artistic production in various cities in the Austrian Netherlands, such as Antwerp, Brussels and Tournai. Charles of Lorraine founded factories in Tervueren for his own use, mainly to decorate textiles, paper and porcelain and to silver pieces in metal. This was one of his hobbies and he was known to visit the factories regularly, these sort of workshops that could be compared to the Gobelins, the royal storage in Paris.