An extremely rare and highly desirable item, one of the most interesting Danzig donations, minted on the occasion of the Peace of Oliva in 1660. The stamps of this donative were made by the prominent Danzig medalist Jan Höhn the younger, son of Jan Höhn the elder, and it was minted in silver and gold as a tribute of the city of Danzig to King Jan II Casimir.
Beautifully preserved piece with preserved medal mirror and untouched detail with beautiful rendering of the finest details of the royal portrait.
The background has scratches, and on the reverse there is graffiti over the Danzig skyline, but it is still fresh with mint luster.
An incredible presentation, especially for such a rare item.
The presented donation, is the second piece to appear on the auction market, the previous one was sold in 2013 for the then not inconsiderable amount of 15,000 PLN.
A representative item that will be an adornment to any collection, especially to lovers of Jan Höhn's workshop.
Obverse: crowned bust of the king to the right, wearing armor, embroidered collar around his neck, Order of the Golden Fleece on his chest, below signed h. IUN (Jan Hön the younger)
IOAN CAS D G POL & SUEC REX M D L RUS PRUS
Reverse: panorama of Gdansk, above it an eagle flying with olive and palm branches in its beak
PAX ÆTERNA AD GEDAN A CIƆIƆCLX III MAII CONDITA
Silver, diameter 48 mm, weight 30.71 g
Edward Raczynski writes on this item as follows: "...The war, which the Swedes raised against Poland for trivial reasons in 1655, was at first very successfully conducted for them, but it continued to have so many unfortunate events that King Carl Gustav, who started it carelessly and hastily out of grief and restlessness in a flourishing age, parted with this world on February 20, 1660.
Often before his death, efforts were made to restore peace, but once Charles Gustav, the other time the Poles and the Brandeburgers, as luck served, hampered his conclusion. But when France also wanted peace in the north, and the Poles were also tired of the war effort, which had increased enormously, in favor of clearing up the more important difficulties, a meeting of plenipotentiaries of all the powers involved in the war was arranged at the Oliwa Monastery, one mile from Gdansk. But when the place seemed too sparse to encompass the deputies of so many Nations, an agreement was made: that the French deputy peace broker should stand in Oliva. The Polish deputies, on the other hand, along with deputies of other powers friendly to Poland, stayed in Gdansk; while the Swedes were placed in the village of Zopot belonging to the Oliwa monastery. Polish, Swedish, Imperial, Danish King, Brandenburg Elector, as those whose cause was at stake, and the French King as intermediary, were all gathered there, while the deputies of the united provinces, who also wanted to be intermediaries, were not received and were completely dismissed from this activity.
A description of these difficult and complicated negotiations can be seen in the work of Jan Böhm, who took them out of the most important archives and manuscripts of the Załuski library and published them; for our purposes, suffice it to say that the negotiations began on January 7, 1660. A few weeks later the King of Sweden died; his death not only did not stop these activities, but actually accelerated the arrangement of the terms, for the reason that Charles XI, the successor of the deceased King, was not old enough to rule, and the Swedes did not want to see their country embroiled in war during the King's minority. The terms of the peace on May 3 at 11 o'clock in the evening, signed by the deputies, were confirmed from the Polish side in Gdansk only on August 8 of the same year...".
