Footnotes

Provenance:
The Royal collections of Saxony, Japanese Palace, Dresden (from 1734);
Acquired from Andreina Torré, Zürich, in 1983

Literature:
Hoffmeister 1989, II, no. 342

Exhibition:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569) and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The coat of arms became part of the Royal coat of arms of Augustus the Strong in 1697, when he was elected King of Poland as well as retaining his title as Elector of Saxony. This was remarkable, as it involved a change of religion; to be elected King of Poland Augustus the Strong had to convert to Catholicism. Saxony had been a stronghold of German Protestantism and Augustus's conversion was therefore considered shocking in Protestant Europe. As the prince-elector guaranteed Saxony's religious position, Augustus's conversion alienated many of his Protestant subjects. As a result of the enormous expenditure of money used to bribe the Polish nobility and clergy, Augustus's contemporaries derisively referred to the Saxon duke's royal ambitions as his "Polish adventure."

It is noteworthy that the directorate of the Corpus Evangelicorum, the official Imperial board of the Protestant Estates and the counterpart of the Corpus Catholicorum, remained under Saxony auspices with the Roman Catholic Augustus, paradoxically, at its head. His church policy within the Holy Roman Empire followed orthodox Lutheranism and ran counter to his new- found religious and absolutist convictions. The Protestant Princes of the Empire and the two remaining Protestant Electors (Hanover and Prussia) were anxious to maintain good relations with Saxony. According to the Peace of Augsburg, Augustus theoretically had the right to re-introduce Roman Catholicism, or at least grant full religious freedom to his fellow Catholics in Saxony, but this never happened. Saxony remained Lutheran and the few Roman Catholics residing in Saxony were without any political or civil rights. The title of King of Poland was not a hereditary one, although Augusts the Strong tried fiercly to make the title hereditary. In 1717 it became clear just how awkward the situation was: to realize his ambitious dynastic plans in Poland and Germany it was necessary for Augustus's heirs to become Roman Catholic. After five years as a convert, his son — the future Augustus III — publicly avowed his Roman Catholicism. The Saxon Estates were outraged and revolted. It was becoming clearer that the conversion to Roman Catholicism was not only a matter of form, but of substance as well. Augustus' wife, Electress Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, famously refused to convert, and did not attend her husband's coronation in Poland. She remained a devout Protestant throughout her life.

Augustus the Strong was able to hold on to the throne until his death in 1733, with the exception of the five years between 1704 and 1709, when Poland was conquered by Stanislaw Leszcynski with the aid of Sweden. Augustus the Strong was reinstated as King with the help of Russia, after the defeat of Karl XII of Poltawa by Peter the Great. After the death of Augustus the Strong, who had always hoped to make the Polish title hereditary, his son, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony was also elected King of Poland and became Augustus III of Poland, through the War of the Polish Succession, formally ended in 1739 through the Treaty of Vienna.

The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace lists 92 beakers and 85 saucers 'mit bunten Blumen gemahlt' (painted with coloured flowers) under no. 336, but makes no mention of a coat-of-arms. It is therefore likely that the arms were added after 1770. A similar example is in the Arnhold Collection, New York (Cassidy-Geiger 2008, no. 103b).