Masterfully and extremely rare pair of early 19th century portrait miniatures depicting two Polish heroes of Napoleonic epoch. First one depicts Josef Antoni Poniatowski ( 1763 Vienna - 1813 falled in the battle by Leipzig), the Polish aristocrat, prince, general, war minister of the Duchy of Warsaw, imperial Prince in the Holy Roman Empire and Marshal of the Empire. The second one depicts Tadeusz Koœciuszko (1746 Poland - 1817 Soloturn , Switzerland), the leader of the uprising of 1794 against the partition powers Russia and Prussia.

The author of both miniatures is Viennese miniature painter Anton Kauffmann , who was active in Vienna ( since c. 1815-1820 till 1850s). His miniatures are extremely rare on that art market, in artnet.com we found only one portrait miniature of a Austrian state minister, signed and dated 1820(!). Kauffmann exhibited at the academical exhibitions of St.Anna in Vienna in 1838 and 1839 with 5 miniatures, among them portrait of court opera singer Draxler.

Literature: "General Artist´s Lexicon " by Thieme/Becker and " Dictionary of Austrian miniature painters " by Prof.H.Fuchs (in German), Vienna, 1975.

Inscriptions: both signed lower right.

Technique: both gouaches on ivory, original early 19th century internal oval bronze frames, mounted with passepartout in external wooden frames from c. 1820 -1840s.

Measurements: each unframed w 2 2/3" x h 3 1/3" ( 6,5 x 8,5 cm), including bronze internal frame, passepartout and external frames w 6" x h 6 7/8" (15,2 x 17,3 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.