Lot Essay
This service, the design of which was derived from Chinese Kangxi originals, was given by Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski (King Stanislas II of Poland) to Sultan Abdul Hamid I of Turkey in 1776. The inscription at the well reads 'These gifts were sent as a sign of friendship and a token of good relations with the Emperor to the Sultan, a Khalif of the House of Osman, The City of Warsaw'. Other pieces from this service were sold in these Rooms on 8th April 1974, lots 113-114, and by Christie's Geneva on 17th November 1980, lot 11. For a soup-plate formerly in the Ole Olsens and Count Stephen Zamoyski Collections, and now in the Campbell Museum Collection, New Jersey, USA, see C.C. Dauterman et. al., Selections from the Campbell Museum Collection (Camden, 1983), p. 126.