For no less than 70 years, the interiors of Wilanów Palace and its many friends had held out hope for the return of two exquisite pieces of 18^th century furniture. An early-18^th century Chinese cabinet and a lady’s writing desk produced ca. 1745 in the French workshop of Jacques Dubois (ca. 1693-1763) were discovered in 2014 at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden and returned to the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace in Wilanów with a formal handing-over ceremony on 17 February 2016.

The Chinese-style cabinet’s double doors conceal an interior compartment with fifteen small drawers. Its surface is finished in black European lacquer and decorated with colourful Far East landscapes on a white background. The gold-plated lock and corner brackets, as well as the hinges and drawer pulls, are all decorated with ribbon ornamentation, which signifies the piece’s French origin.

The rococo lady’s writing desk with hinged top came out of a workshop whose furniture pieces were nothing short of unique works of art. The desk still bears the master’s signature – “I.DUBOIS” – etched into the edge of one of the side walls and the “JME” hallmark of the French cabinetmakers’ guild, attesting to the piece’s highest possible quality. The desk is decorated with a technique and style that are characteristic of this particular workshop. The outer surfaces finished in black lacquer serve as the background for Eastern landscapes painted in gold and red after the Chinese style. The interior with drawers and a hidden lock box is finished in red lacquer. The drawer pulls and the trim of blossoming tree branches lining the edges are all made of gold-plated bronze.

Both pieces of furniture exemplify the fashion for Oriental art that swept across Europe in the 18^th century. Both were also put on display in 1923 at the Exhibition of the Warsaw Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments devoted to French art, as documented in the Inventory of exhibits on loan from Wilanów dated 30 April 1923, which today resides in the Central Archive of Historical Records. In the case of the desk, still affixed is a well-preserved paper label showing the round seal of Wilanów Palace and the desk’s position in the aforementioned inventory – #27, along with the year 1923. A similar label marking the cabinet survives only partially today, though the inventory reveals that the piece bore the number 30 and was described as “Dresser. Chinese decoration, French production, Wilanów collection.” This information would prove very helpful in verifying the identity of the two pieces of furniture found in Dresden.

The desk was most likely part of the décor of the Porcelain Room in the 1920s. In 1934, it was captured in a photograph taken by Dutch photojournalist Willem van de Poll. All the surviving records indicate that the desk probably remained in Wilanów Palace until 1944. The cabinet, meanwhile, was listed as a “first selection” item in the catalogue Sichergestellte Kunstwerke im Generalgouvernement, printed in Wrocław in 1940. In the winter or spring of 1940, the piece was packed into crate number WI 26 and assigned the number 274 among other cultural property seized by German occupying authorities from Wilanów Palace, the list likely being attached to a document certifying the objects’ receipt on 12 February 1940, signed by Josef Mühlmann. Yet, the cabinet was not among the items shipped off and remained for the time being in Wilanów. Between 19 June and 18 July 1941, the remaining crates of furniture were unpacked and the condition of the contents was checked, after which the furniture was put back into the crates.

It is known that in the period between August and October 1942, the previously packed-up furniture – the cabinet and desk most likely among the group – was once again unpacked and arranged in the palace’s rooms pursuant to an order issued by Alfred Schellenberg on 29 July of that year. The purpose was to recreate the palace’s historical décor for visitation purposes, as signed off on by Kajetan Mühlmann on 15 July 1942.

Near the end of 1944, Alfred Schellenberg put Jan Morawiński, a curator delegated from the National Museum in Warsaw, in charge of overseeing the packing of the furniture still in Wilanów Palace, which at that point was ordered by Kajetan Mühlmann to be moved to Wawel Castle. In May and June 1944, the furniture was packed and secured by the Schenker company. Yet, in all likelihood, the cabinet never made it to Wawel. A copy of Sichergestellte Kunstwerke with notations by Wilhelm Ernst Palezieux, left at Wawel Castle, shows the entry “fehlt” (Eng. – missing) in position number 353. Next to the other pieces on the list was information regarding their destination after removal in 1944 or an entry stating that they were left behind in Krakow.

Both of the pieces presumably shared the same fate as most of the other Wilanów furnishings and décor that were later removed by German troops in the autumn of 1944. An account given by the National Museum curator Jan Morawiński states that the items still at Wilanów were transported away in the autumn of 1944 under the supervision of Dr. Alfred Schellenberg. According to Morawiński’s account, that shipment was not inventoried.  

These two exceptional pieces of furniture once adorning the Wilanów Palace interiors were rediscovered thanks to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden’s “Daphne” project intended to inventory and determine the provenance of their exhibits. Having discovered the paper labels on the pieces, representatives of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden contacted the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace in Wilanów in late 2014 with the aim of verifying their origin. The case was taken over by the Division of Looted Art, a branch of the Department of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, tasked with the recovery of Polish cultural property lost during the Second World War.  

edited by Marianna Otmianowska