Tyszkiewicz, Józef (1850-1905)

by Hadrien Rambach

Count Józef Tyszkiewicz (1850-1905), the owner of the coins in the 1901 Paris auction in which the first coins from the Karnak hoard appeared, was a known numismatist who wrote a book on Lithuanian coins (Skorowidz monet litewskich, zebrał Józef Tyszkiewicz (Warsaw 1875) and a Guide de l’amateur de monnaies polonaises (Posen 1890). Among Józef’s extensive collections of art, he possessed a nice assemblage of Polish medals, ancient and Lithuanian coins which have inspired the Skorowidz monet litewskich (Warsaw, 1875), with introduction and commentaries of Karol Bayer. He designed and issued several medals with representations of his ancestors and members of his own family, which he published alongside the documents and heirlooms in the album entitled Tyskiewiciana (Poznań, 1903).

Józef came from a family of collectors and numismatists, such as his relative Eustache Tyszkiewicz (1814-1873) who founded in 1855 the Antiquities museum of Vilnius, and his own father, Count Michal Tyszkiewicz (1828-1897), a landlord in Birżny (Kaunas district) and in Great Poland, who financed the display of coins in the Vilnius museum, became in 1858 a member of the St-Petersburg Archaeological Society, and was a very famous collector of antiquities – notably engraved gems.

Bibliography:

  • Strzałkowski, Zbiory polskich monet i medali, Łódź 1991, p. 127 (kindly translated by Paweł Gołyźniak).
  • Mariola Kazimierczak, “Michel Tyszkiewicz (1828-1897), grand collectionneur d’antiquités et donateur au Musée du Louvre”, in Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Annales, vol. 14 (2012), pp. 405-423: p. 408.
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 91: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part I, Zurich, 23 May 2016, pp. [67]-[79].
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 99: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part II, Zurich, 29 May 2017, pp. 47-63.
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 105: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part III, Zurich, 9 May 2018, pp. 82-105.

This article was first published in a catalogue of auction house Numismatica Ars Classica.