LORRAINE - [Stanislas LEZCZYNSKI, 1677-1766, King of Poland - Lot 416

LORRAINE - [Stanislas LEZCZYNSKI, 1677-1766, King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine, died of severe burns caused by his robe catching fire in the fireplace he was reviving, he was buried in the crypt of the Eglise Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours in Nancy] / Extraordinary relic: "Piece of clothing with which the King of Poland was clothed in his tomb at Bonsecours", according to the note written on a folded sheet (18.5 x 23 cm) enclosing a piece of cloth (14 x 7 cm plus lining of the same size)-The text itself does not suggest that the author was a close relative of the King, otherwise he would have used "His Majesty the King of Poland", on the other hand, he uses the past tense "was clothed", and the designation "his tomb at Bonsecours" indicates a certain disdain; a believer would have specified "Eglise Notre-Dame-du-Bonsecours", which leads us to deduce that this was probably a sample taken when the coffin was desecrated during the Revolution; the laid paper bears a "PA" watermark, and the ink and handwriting are potentially late 18th century - as for the fabric, it's very much 18th century, reminiscent of the creations of Philippe de Lassalle, who worked for King Stanislas: the flowers are typical of his lampas (a silk fabric with designs woven in relief); the fabric's perfect state of preservation is due to the fact that the coffin was perfectly sealed and desecrated some 25 years after burial, after which it was perfectly preserved in this folded paper (this relic was part of an archive belonging to the family of the Counts of Saint-Germain, who lived in Nancy and Switzerland).