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Lot Essay
This silver tea service, produced by Fabergé between 1899 and 1904, was likely commissioned by Stanislaw Kazimierz Kossakowski (1837-1905), a member of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, noted heraldist, photographer, and landowner. Each piece is engraved with the Slepowron, an ancient Polish coat-of-arms documented since the 13th century. Although the Slepowron coat-of-arms was borne by numerous Polish noble families, the Latin motto 'Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re' ('Gently in manner, firmly in action') was associated exclusively with Count Kossakowski.
Kossakowski was the son of Stanislaw Szczęsny Kossakowski (1795-1872), a Polish diplomat in the Russian Empire. He inherited the Vaitkuškis Manor in Lithuania from his father and, through his mother, acquired extensive estates in the Penza and Simbirsk Governorates, as well as copper mines in Arkhangelsk and a palace in Warsaw.
The author of three volumes of Historical and Genealogical Monographs of Some Polish Families, Kossakowski also left behind an important photographic archive documenting the social and cultural life of Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland in the late 19th century.
We are grateful to Dr. Elena A. Yarovaya, an expert on heraldry, for her assistance with the research of the present lot.
Kossakowski was the son of Stanislaw Szczęsny Kossakowski (1795-1872), a Polish diplomat in the Russian Empire. He inherited the Vaitkuškis Manor in Lithuania from his father and, through his mother, acquired extensive estates in the Penza and Simbirsk Governorates, as well as copper mines in Arkhangelsk and a palace in Warsaw.
The author of three volumes of Historical and Genealogical Monographs of Some Polish Families, Kossakowski also left behind an important photographic archive documenting the social and cultural life of Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland in the late 19th century.
We are grateful to Dr. Elena A. Yarovaya, an expert on heraldry, for her assistance with the research of the present lot.