A pair of Meissen porcelain candlesticks from the “Sulkowski service”, decorated in colours and gold with Kakiemon flowers, light nozzle moulded with basketwork, faceted and knopped stem, domed base applied on each side with moulded crowned shield painted with marriage arms. Impressed Dreher's mark of four crosses within a circle. One with interior mark in black - VS 408b. Germany c. 1735–1738. H. 24 cm. (2)
The delivery specification of the service records “28 Tafel Leuchter” [28 table candlesticks] (quoted by H. Rakebrand, Meissener Tafelgeschirre des 18. Jahrhunderts (1958), p. 14).
The Sulkowski Service was the first large, privately commissioned armorial service to have been designed to order at the Meissen factory. It preceded the more famous Swan Service by several years and was the first that was not intended for the Elector.
Alexander Joseph Graf von Sulkowski (1695–1762) was born into a prominent Polish noble family and entered royal service as a page at the Warsaw court. From 1711, he was raised in the household of the Electoral Prince Friedrich Augustus, the heir of Augustus the Strong, of whom he became a close friend. He became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber in 1726, was raised to a (Polish) count in 1732 and, following the accession of Friedrich Augustus in 1733, was made Privy Councillor, Minister of State, Cabinet Minister and an Imperial Count. Sulkowski also was the recipient of numerous gifts and orders from both Augustus the Strong and his successor, Friedrich Augustus, including Schloß Übigau and the Flemmingsche Palais in Dresden, as well as the Polish Order of the White Eagle and the Order of St. Heinrich.
Sulkowski married (firstly) in 1728 a Lady in Waiting of the Electoral Princess, Maria Anna Franziska Catharina Freifrau von Stein zu Jettingen (1712–41), whose arms appear on the service together with those of her husband.