the well done count

Comte St. Germain (allegedly 1710-1935) has been described as an adventurer, charlatan, inventor, alchemist, violinist and amateur composer, but is best known as a recurring figure in the stories of several strands of occultism.

image found here

St. Germain never revealed his actual background and identity, leading to many speculations about him and his origin and ancestry. Some of these include the possibility that he was the son of Francis II Rakoczi, the Prince of Transylvania. 

still from the movie Transylvania found here

St. Germain’s first chronicled appearances were in London in 1743 and in Edinburgh in 1745, where he was apparently arrested for spying. He was released in 1746 and promptly disappeared. Horace Walpole, who knew him in London, described him thus: “He sings, plays the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad and not very sensible“.

speedy violin player, David Garrett found here

He reappeared in Versailles in 1758, claiming to have secret recipes for dyes. During his time in Paris he gave diamonds as gifts and reputedly hinted that he was centuries old. After that the Count moved into Russia and apparently was in St Petersburg when the Russian army put Catherine the Great on the throne. Later conspiracy theories credit him for causing it.

image found here

The next year he turned up in Belgium and tried to offer processing secrets of wood, leather and oil paint to the state. He supposedly turned iron into something resembling gold and then disappeared for another 11 years. In 1776 he appeared in Germany calling himself Count Welldone, and again offered recipes for cosmetics, wines, liqueurs, treatments of bone, paper and ivory. 

ivory tabernacle found here

There were rumors of him being alive in Paris in 1835, in Milan in 1867 and in Egypt during Napoleon’s campaign. Annie Besant said she met the Count in 1896. Theosophist Guy Ballard claimed that the Count had introduced him to visitors from Venus and published a book series about his channelings. 

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Though he never ate any food in public, he liked dining out because of the people he met and the conversations he heard. They say he lived on oatmeal. He had an immense stock of amusing stories with which he regaled society. He was interested in the preparation of dyes and even started a factory in Germany for the manufacture of felt hats. The count claimed that he had learned how to turn several small diamonds into one large one and to make pearls grow to spectacular size.

Mr Pearl found here

In 1972, ex-convict and lover of singing star Dalida, Richard Chanfray claimed to be the Count of St. Germain on French television. He also claimed that Louis XV was still alive. During the centuries after his death, numerous myths, legends and speculations have surfaced. He has been attributed with occult practices like snake charming and ventriloquism.

Richard Chanfray found here

But even if he has never come back, even if he is no longer alive and we must relegate to legend the idea that the great Hermetic nobleman is still wandering about the world with his sparkling jewels, his senna tea, and his taste for princesses and queens, even so it can be said that he has gained the immortality he sought.