Casket

One of a pair of rectangular caskets is a part of a ten-part toilet set containing also a pair of single-candle candlesticks, a pair of small caskets and one big casket, two seashell-shaped snuffboxes and a brush fitting (Wil.510–Wil.519).

Silvers from the set were made by a Berlin goldsmith active in the first half of the 18th century, who signed his works as Röhner. The unique artistic value of this set lies in the decoration of casket lids, jewel box sides and candlestick bases and stems made of surfaces fully covered with enamel and adorned with caps of pure gold, called “Saxony enamel”. Such luxurious products were ordered and distributed by Pierre Fromery – an armourer and trader in haberdashery products, who arrived in Berlin from Paris in 1685. Fromery and his son Alexander (also trading in medals) presumably commissioned Berlin experts to make plates with this unique decoration. The set is one of the unique works adorning the richest treasuries of rulers in Munich, Vienna and Denmark and museum collections in Hamburg or Boston.

The casket repeats the shape of other cases from the set. The cover is slightly convex and fully covered with painting enamel. On the white surface of the cover, an imaginary landscape with buildings is painted, which serves as a background for four golden caps with representations of goddesses: Athena (twice), Venus with Cupid and Diana with a dog. The inclined edges of the cover are adorned with intricately chiselled golden caps with figures of gods with their attributes and
small garlands and animals put upon the enamel surface.

The casket, along with the entire set (called the Dressing Table in the 19th century), was shown to the Warsaw audience during An Exhibition of Antique and Art Objects in the palace of Count August Potocki and his wife at Krakowskie Przedmieście 32 (today the Museum of the University of Warsaw) in 1856. The set is described in the catalogue of this exhibition under item 513.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek