Casket

It is the second of the two smaller caskets belonging to the toilet set of Queen Maria Kazimiera purchased by Stanisław Kostka Potocki on February 27th, 1808 in the Parisian store of De Tournier. It was a gift for his wife Aleksandra, née Lubomirski, in order to enrich the exhibition of the royal apartments of the Wilanów Palace. The ebenist's prototype were the paintings by Francesco Albani from the series purchased by Louis XIV in 1685 for the royal collection. The lid of the box acts as a pin cushion, covered with a piece of brocade fabric with a large report, while on the walls there are episodes from the life of cupids from the painting "Adonis brought by cupids to Venus or Water"

The item, like other caskets from this set, is classified as a curiosité due to its elaborate and valuable Boulle-style marquetry decoration, qualifying it for luxurious, worthy apartments, and due to its high quality artistic decoration with scenes taken from the paintings of Francesco Albani - a painter appreciated in the Baroque period by Louis XIV and very fashionable during the Enlightenment - a contemporary of Potocki. For the count, as a patriot, the history of the entire toilet complex related to the person of the Polish queen, Marie Casimire, is of exceptional value.

AK