Casket

The rectangular casket is a part of a ten-part toilet set containing a pair of single-candle candlesticks, a pair of medium-sized 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. On the white surface of the cover, an imaginary landscape with buildings is painted, which serves as a background for two golden caps with representations of figures: the fame dances in the middle on the right side of a low tree and beside her there is a sitting figure with a shield or mirror rested on the knees. The inclined edges of the cover are adorned with intricately chiselled golden caps with children’s heads and
small garlands and animals put upon the enamel surface. The decoration is similar to the decoration of the case no. Wil.514.

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