Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)
András SZILÁGYI: About the Jewelled Cup in the Esterházy Collection
surrounded by lots of beautiful jewels. There is an old emerald on one side and a sapphire on the other, which have the seal [coat of arms] of the Polish king Casimir carved in them. " 1 0 Next, the account meticulously lists all the gems without fail that embellish the cup." This itemized list makes it clear that the description documents the current state of the piece - or more precisely, its state before the grave damage it sustained in 1945. 12 (fig. 1-3) The mounting of the gems and intaglios, and the manner of the application of other ornaments practically preclude any later, post1685 alteration of the cup, the replacement of heraldically adorned intaglios with other (newer) pieces of identical material and working. However, contrary to the statement of the cited text, the sapphire and emerald intaglios do not show the coat of arms of John II Casimir (Vasa), king of Poland. Recent heraldic researches have explored and convincingly proven that the mounted gems show the coats of arms of two members of the Trautson family: Count Paul Sixtus Trautson (1550— 1621) and his son Count Johann Franz Trautson (1609-1663). 1 3 It is clear that here an objective mistake is the case, an erratic identification of the coat of arms. We might as well brush aside the issue saying that the clerks of the inventory were presumably little versed in heraldic matters. The fact that they did not recognize the two, hardly different variants of the Trautson arms is not at all surprising. What is odd, even puzzling is the naming, of all persons, "the Polish king Casimir". Why did they name John II Casimir, king of Poland, as the possessor of the two coats of arms? In order to come closer to the answer, we have to make a small detour. What is certain is that the decision to inventory the treasures was taken by palatine Pál Esterházy, the owner of the family treasury at that time. It was he who issued orders together with some instructions to the officials of the household in charge of such matters to take an inventory in 1685. It is hardly questionable that these instructions deviated little from the statements he added to the items of a shorter list of art works of the same year. The entry in the latter list unambiguously referring to the cup in question runs as follows: "A very fine gold cup with King Casimirus' gems. .. " H Another important piece of information is that recent and apparently correct dating of the cup in its present-day form adorned with diverse ornaments is to 1638. Its earliest mention among the treasures of the Esterházy collection is in the cited inventory of 1685, with no mention of this item in any other inventory. In the knowledge of these facts we would certainly conclude that the cup belonged to the count's recent acquisitions around 1685. And is that the case? Yes, in essentials it is - but then, where was it earlier, during the nearly fifty years after its making? If we manage to reconstruct this route from the point of origin through its stations to the known "destination", then we can presumably answer the question about the person of the Polish king. Recent researches have proven that the jewelled cup - in its present-day state - arrived in Kismarton from Vienna in September 1638 as the wedding gift by king Ferdinand III. The ruler's representative in this matter, the mentioned Count Johann Franz Trautson handed it over to the bride and bridegroom, the son of Palatine Miklós, István Esterházy and his bride Erzsébet Thurzó. (figs. 4-5) They - the designated 45
