At the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), in one of the many showcases in the exhibition of 18th-century sculpture and decorative arts (gallery 533), there is a candelabra (multi-armed candlestick) that is an unusual Polonica. We are talking about a candelabra from the table set of Aleksander Józef Sułkowski. Objects from this set are outstanding rarities on the collectors' market.

Aleksander Józef Sulkowski (1695-1762) came from a noble family and grew up as a page at the court of Augustus the Strong. There he befriended his son August III, later Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

In 1728, Sułkowski married the Elector's baroness Maria Anna Franciszka Katarzyna von Stein zu Jettingen (1712-1741). In 1733 he became secret councillor, first minister of Saxony and also chief adviser to the king, and from 1735 general of the Saxon infantry. During this time he was responsible for, among other things, the royal art collection and the supply of porcelain for the Japanese Palace in Dresden, which was intended to be a 'porcelain palace'. Sułkowski remained minister until 1738, when the office was succeeded by Count Henrik Brühl. It is possible that it was his intrigues that led to Count Sulkowski's removal from the Dresden court.

Service from the Meissen manufactory
In 1735, Sulkowski ordered a porcelain service of about 1,000 pieces from the Meissen manufactory, which included both dinner and tea pieces. The set also included cutlery and various serving utensils for fruit, jam and water. In addition, elements for table beautification (surtout de table) were also produced, and these included multi-arm candelabra and simpler candlesticks. The service was designed by the eminent sculptor Johann Joachim Kaendler, chief designer at the Meissen manufactory.

The service is in the Eastern style. It was partly modelled on silver vessels made in Augsburg by Johannes Biller, from a service intended for the princely wedding of Friedrich August Wettin and Maria Josepha Habsburg in 1719 (the set was lost during the Second World War). The main and invariable elements of the service are the cartouches of the coat of arms of Sulkowski (Sulima) and his wife (von Stein). Another characteristic element is the finishing of the edges of the dishes with the motif of a wicker basket, the so-called Sulkowski-Ozier. The white surfaces of the service are complemented by painted, scattered, small flowers ("indianischen Blumen").

Coat-of-arms cartouches supported by putti form the base of a candelabra from the MET collection. Above, a female figure seated on a pedestal with eastern features, in 'antique' dress, supports a branch forking into the four arms of a candelabra. The fifth arm of the candlestick emerges from a leafy volute from behind the figure's back.

Work on the service was carried out with the active participation of Sulkowski himself, who supervised the work being done. Source confirmations of the work on the service have also survived. Joachim Kandler's work diary from 1735 to 1737 records the successive phases of the preparation of the pieces.

The Sulkowski service was the first porcelain set made in the Meissen manufactory to private order. More recently, researchers have put forward the thesis that the main reason for the removal of Sulkowski from his position as chief advisor to the king was that he used the Meissen manufactory for his own benefit, without informing the king and the manufactory committee.

Another large service, the so-called Swan Service, was ordered from the Meissen porcelain manufactory by Count Henrik Brühl in connection with his marriage to Maria Anna Franziska Countess von Kolowrat-Krakowsky.

The fate of the Sulkowski service
The service was first used at the Dresden palace of the Sulkowski family on 28 February 1737, during the wedding celebrations of Prince Jerzy Ignacy Lubomirski and Joanna von Stein zu Jettingen (sister of Maria Anna), attended by King August III. At that time, the first course was served on porcelain crockery, rather than on silverware as had been the custom until then, when porcelain crockery appeared only at dessert.

The service survived in its entirety until the 1880s, when parts of it found their way onto the antiquarian market. Elements of the service also appeared at auction in the 20th century. The candelabra described here was put up for auction at Christie's auction house in London on 5 October 1987. In Poland, the largest collection from this set is held by the Wawel Royal Castle, which this year enriched its collection with two single candlesticks.