Stanisław Lubomirski

The medal in honour of the Grand Marshal of the Crown Stanisław Lubomirski (1722-1783) was commissioned by Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764-1795) to the court artist Jan Filip Holzhaeusser (1741-1792). The gold copy, weighing 45 ducats (about 158 g), was given to the Marshal by the king in 1771.

Until 1773, Stanislaw Lubomirski belonged to the political camp of Stanislaw Augustus, centred around the Czartoryski Family. During the reign of Augustus III the Saxon (1733-1763), he was decorated with the Order of the White Eagle (1757), and was among the first to receive the Order of St. Stanislaus, established by Stanisław August (1765). In the same year, he became commissioner of the Crown Treasury Commission, which took care of industry and trade, and supervised treasury matters. From 1766 Lubomirski was Grand Marshal of the Crown and thus the second senator in the Commonwealth after the Primate. One of his responsibilities was to take care of order and security in the king's place of residence. Therefore, when in 1770 an epidemic threatened Warsaw, Stanisław Lubomirski ordered the city to be surrounded by a sanitary embankment with a moat, and organized services which controlled the movement of people. These achievements of the Marshal are referred to in the Latin inscription in an oak wreath on the reverse of the medal, translated as: “To the one, who out of a sense of duty of his office duly took care of the wholeness, tranquillity and decor of the capital city of Warsaw in the sad and unpleasant times of the plague, domestic quarrels and high prices, King Stanisław August bestowed this meritorious award in 1771”. The reverse side of the work is decorated with a half-figure of Stanisław Lubomirski in left profile, presented in late Baroque style: wearing armour with a cloak over it, with a ribbon and a star of the Order of the White Eagle and a Marshal's staff in his right hand. The image is surrounded by a Latin inscription, translated as: “Stanislaw Lubomirski, Grand Marshal of the Crown, Prince of  the Holy Roman Empire”. To the right, the author's signature: I. P. H.

The crack in the stamp obverse, also visible on our copy, prompted a similar but smaller work - 44 mm in diameter. The stamps of both versions of the medal, having been taken to St. Petersburg in 1868, were returned to Poland in 1924. The medal was purchased for the Museum's collection in 1971.

Tomasz Markiewicz