1735-1738, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS, DREHER'S QUARTERED CIRCLE MARKS TO ONE

R.G. Vater Collection no. 803 (paper collection label applied to the underside of both).

This pair are one of 28 candlesticks made for the important armorial service produced between 1735 and 1738 for Alexander Joseph Graf von Sulkowski (1695-1762). Preceding Count Heinrich von Brühl's Swan service, it was the first privately commissioned armorial service of large size, and each piece bears the arms of the arms of Sulkowski (on the left) and his wife, Electoral Princess, Maria Anna Franziska Catharina Freifrau von Stein zu Jettingen (1712-41), whom he married in 1728. It was famously used on 28 February 1737 for the wedding of Prince Stanislaus Lubomirski III and Baroness von Stein zu Jettingen, a relative of Sulkwoski's wife, that was attended by Augustus III.

Sulkowski was born into a prominent Polish noble family and entered royal service as a page at the Warsaw court. From 1711, he was raised in the household of the Electoral Prince Friedrich Augustus, the heir of Augustus the Strong. On the accession of Augustus III in 1733, Sulkowski was made Minister of State, Cabinet Minister, Privy Councillor and an Imperial Count and among his other duties, he supervised the completion of the Japanese Palace and the deliveries of porcelain to the Palace. In 1733, he was created a Count by the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI, and he was put in command of Augustus's troops in Poland from 1735, and of the troops fighting the Turks in 1737. In spite of his friendship with the king, in February 1738 he was dismissed from Court (see Rainer Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1990, pp. 267-279). He was allowed to retain his titles and property, and the second delivery of the service (the first delivery took place in 1737) was made to the Japanese Palace shortly after his dismissal. The list of items delivered (signed by Höroldt) records 28 candlesticks: '28 Tafel Leuchter'. This list was published by Hilde Rakebrandt, Meissener Tafelgeschirre des 18. Jahrhunderts, Darmstadt, 1958, pp. 14-15.

The Sulkowki Service was first published and discussed by Julius Lessing, 'Das Porzellangeschirr Sulkowski' in Kunstgewerbeblatt, Leipzig, 1888, Vol. 4, pp. 43-8. Shortly after this article was published, the majority of the service was apparently sold, though a substantial portion was preserved in the family home in Poland until the 1960s when it was sold by Sotheby's, London ('The Property of a Lady of Title') on 23 May 1967, lots 29-50. The pair in the present lot were lot 33 in that sale. Another pair with the same provenance, also sold by Sotheby's, London on 23 May 1967 (lot 34) were sold by Bonhams, London, 6 July 2021, lot 78.