Stanislaw HELLICH (Foundry), Set of 4 plaques with battle scenes

Antoni KURZAWA (1868-1946) - by,
tin, cast; 2 plaques, 8.5 x 14 cm; 2 plaques, 8.5 x 19.5 cm; on three on back stamped foundry mark: "S. K. HELLICH / WARSAW".
Warsaw, the firm of Stanislaw K. Hellich, 1920.
The plaques were designed circa 1886 by Antoni Kurzawa as the walls of a cassette dedicated to Prince Józef Poniatowski. The cassette was lost, but based on the iconographic material, four badges were reconstructed and similar commemorative cassettes were made, as well as the badges themselves adapted for hanging on the wall.
The main badge, presumably the one on the front of the casket, was designed by Andrzej Kurzawa according to Juliusz Kossak's watercolor "Rehearsal of a lance before Napoleon in Schoenbrunn in 1809". (this watercolor was lost before 1899 and is known only from a black-and-white photograph).
The second larger plaque depicts the charge of the cavalrymen at Somosierra.
One of the smaller plaques depicts the retreat from under Moscow - a troop of cavalrymen and the landscape after the battle.
The other of the smaller ones depicts Napoleon with his staff observing the crossing of a detachment of cavalrymen across the Neris River.
The placards were made by various Warsaw foundries, including Edward Krasnosielski's factory.