Laurel ring

This ring belongs to a set of two similar rings that have survived in the Wilanów collection (cf. note to the object no. Wil.3382). These are very interesting and rare objects with a commemorative function – metal rings for tree trunks. Both rings bear marks or signatures that refer to their history and indicate the time of their creation. The first ring, which is described here, has an engraved inscription, whereas the second ring with no. Wil.3382 is adorned with the Pilawa coat of arms of the Potocki family and two stylised letters M and P in Gothic font. The object described here consists of two parts in the form of the letter C interconnected with hinges allowing for movement. On one of the external parts of the ring, the following text is engraved in three fields:

JOHN III’S LAUREL HIT WITH A CANNON BALL DURING THE SIEGE OF WARSAW, Y. MDCCXCIV THIS TRIBE OF VICTORS COMMITTED TO FAME AND HEROIC DEEDS WAS HIT WITH THE SAME THUNDER AS ITS PERISHING HOMELAND THE BLOW DID NOT DESTROY THIS MARK OF GLORY, THE UNWITHERED LAUREL GROWS IN A TROUBLED PERIOD, FORMS YOUNG SHOOTS AND FORESHADOWS THE BUDS OF FUTURE WREATHS

The internal surface of the ring for a tree trunk or limb, made of gilded brass, has an engraved text that identifies the originator of this commemorative initiative: STANISŁAW KOSTKA POTOCKI Y. MDCCCV. The laurel of King John III Sobieski commemorated in the inscription probably still grew in 1815 – the year in which the Society of Friends of Sciences held a ceremony in the Hotel Angielski in Warsaw on the occasion of the publication of Samuel Bogumił Linde’s Dictionary of Polish. During the aforementioned ceremony, the newly issued volumes were decorated with ‘a laurel taken from Wilanów from a tree planted in the times of King John III and sent intentionally for this feast by Aleksandra Potocka, née Lubomirska, the wife of Count Stanisław Potocki.’ (K. Gutowska-Dudek, catalogue note in: The Throne of Souvenirs, exhibition catalogue, Warszawa 1996, p. , quoted after: A. Kraushar, The Royal Society of the Friends of Sciences 1800–1832. A historical monograph based on archival sources, Czasy Księstwa Warszawskiego 1807–1815, vol. II, Kraków-Warszawa 1902, pp. 105–106.)