History of some antiquities from the collection of Michał Tyszkiewicz in Gródek

Abstract

The palace in Gródek, one of the palaces built by the Tyszkiewicz family in Lithuania, was located in present-day Belarus, a dozen kilometres from Minsk. The founder of the building was Count Michał Tyszkiewicz. Built in 1855, the palace remained in the hands of the family until 1918. Among the antique pieces of furniture documented on photographs and paintings are a table and a mirror, today kept in Lithuanian museums. The mirror, decorated with tusks of wild pigs, was offered to King Augustus II on the occasion of his coronation in 1697. In the middle of the 19th century it was purchased by Michał Tyszkiewicz, who then added it to the furnishings of a tent offered as a resting place for Tsar Alexander during a hunting trip organised by Michał Tyszkiewicz and his brother in 1858 near Vilnius. This event was recorded by journalists and artists on some lithographs.