Haaa, I read that article much more recently, but still didn't remember this bit.
the "Alcmene shared his vault" anecdote that we are highly suspicious of and think was probably a misunderstanding
I found an article in "Communications from the Society for the History of Potsdam" (1864), Die Gruft auf Sanssouci (The Vault at Sanssouci), which talks about the two 19th century cave-ins. It says the first one happened between 1830 and 1840, the second one January 24th, 1860, which I'm side-eyeing, given how very convenient that date is. (On the other hand, maybe there were more people running around on that day specifically and that's why the cave-in happened? Who knows.)
Anyway, the author - A. Bethge, secretary of the garden administration - says he used the 1860 cave-in to go inside the vault! There was only a small hole so it was pretty dark, but he says he found a small pile of calcified bones that he thinks must have belonged to the one dog who got buried in there. And he took a piece of these bones as a souvenir. (He gives a source for his dog information, Manger, from 1789, who does indeed have a half-sentence saying that the favourite dogs were buried next to and the last one inside the vault, but there's no mention of his source for that and no name for the dog. Wiki tells me that Manger was an architect and construction official/building director, who seems to have worked on the New Palais, and actually got imprisoned shortly before Fritz' death for bad management and possible embezzlement, but then rehabilitated and promoted by FWII. Wiki also says that he kept a lot of building related records that Fritz told him to destroy.)
Bethge also cites the report of a guard who was there when the first cave-in happened, and who said that he saw a wooden box with a dog skeleton in the vault. Also, both cave-ins were due to rotting beams, and the vault itself was very simple, with whitewashed brick walls.
Make of that what you will. :)
(Btw, he has Biche dying in the concert room as well, but I think he got that from Preuss, which is the source he gives for all the (alive) dog related anecdotes he includes. And he's got the wrong death date for Thysbe (1770 instead of 1775), unless Fritz had two of... oh, wait, he did. Fritz, using the same name for multiple dogs? Really not helpful for research purposes.)
Re: Biche Painting
the "Alcmene shared his vault" anecdote that we are highly suspicious of and think was probably a misunderstanding
I found an article in "Communications from the Society for the History of Potsdam" (1864), Die Gruft auf Sanssouci (The Vault at Sanssouci), which talks about the two 19th century cave-ins. It says the first one happened between 1830 and 1840, the second one January 24th, 1860, which I'm side-eyeing, given how very convenient that date is. (On the other hand, maybe there were more people running around on that day specifically and that's why the cave-in happened? Who knows.)
Anyway, the author - A. Bethge, secretary of the garden administration - says he used the 1860 cave-in to go inside the vault! There was only a small hole so it was pretty dark, but he says he found a small pile of calcified bones that he thinks must have belonged to the one dog who got buried in there. And he took a piece of these bones as a souvenir. (He gives a source for his dog information, Manger, from 1789, who does indeed have a half-sentence saying that the favourite dogs were buried next to and the last one inside the vault, but there's no mention of his source for that and no name for the dog. Wiki tells me that Manger was an architect and construction official/building director, who seems to have worked on the New Palais, and actually got imprisoned shortly before Fritz' death for bad management and possible embezzlement, but then rehabilitated and promoted by FWII. Wiki also says that he kept a lot of building related records that Fritz told him to destroy.)
Bethge also cites the report of a guard who was there when the first cave-in happened, and who said that he saw a wooden box with a dog skeleton in the vault. Also, both cave-ins were due to rotting beams, and the vault itself was very simple, with whitewashed brick walls.
Make of that what you will. :)
(Btw, he has Biche dying in the concert room as well, but I think he got that from Preuss, which is the source he gives for all the (alive) dog related anecdotes he includes. And he's got the wrong death date for Thysbe (1770 instead of 1775), unless Fritz had two of... oh, wait, he did. Fritz, using the same name for multiple dogs? Really not helpful for research purposes.)