The history of Jacobson’s residence in Warsaw in the second half of the 18th century and the early 19th century

Abstract

Jacobson’s palace is a good example of a burgher family residence in 18th-century Warsaw. A 1770 tax roll lists the Jacobsons as the owners of properties registered as nos 723 and 724 in the jurydyka (enclave) of Leszno. Both building lots were owned by Joachim Fryderyk Jacobson, whose name is first mentioned in sources in January 1753. He bought the property at no. 724 for 430 ducats, equalling 1290 Polish zloties, on the 3rd of February 1753. In 1761 he was elected an elder of the community of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church and in 1778 he was admitted into the municipal law of Warsaw. In 1770 he became the court jeweller of King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, for whom he made orders of St Stanislaus. Among Jacobson’s customers were also Jan Klemens Branicki, who ordered jewellery from him, and hetman Michał Kazimierz “Rybeńko” Radziwiłł. Jacobson died probably at the end of 1786. Jacobson’s residence represents a type that art historians describe as a cross between a palace and a tenement house. It had a spacious apartment for the owner in the front part on the first floor; it also had flats for rent with household facilities. The design is ascribed to either Jakub Fontana
or Szymon Bogumił Zug, who were both architects active in Warsaw at that time. Written sources indicate that the house had three storeys. On the ground floor there was a gateway, with shops or offices on both sides, and a grand staircase leading up to the attic. The numerous rooms on the higher storeys (two on the second floor and four in the attic) might have been the living quarters of the King’s jeweller’s children. The house is shown in Zygmunt Vogel’s watercolour,
dated to 1785–86. Both properties were owned by J.F. Jacobson’s descendants until the 1820s.