An issue showing a very interesting aspect of court life in the 18th century. As the medal's border reads, it presents"CAROUSSEL COMIQVE LE MARDI GRAS 1722"(CAROUSSEL COMIQVE LE MARDI GRAS 1722), a carnival court party held on the last day before Lent in 1722.
The carousel was a kind of staged knight's tournament, but without fighting - rather, with elements of equestrian displays, disguises, jokes and music. The comic carousel (like the one of 1722) additionally featured satirical and theatrical elements, often based on commedia dell'arte, as alluded to by the reverse of the medal.
It took place in the magnificent Zwinger - a late Baroque palace whose construction was begun in 1709 by King August II the Strong, the bird's-eye view of which we can admire on the obverse of the medal.
Today it is a very rare item, which may be due to its small issue. As we read in a study of the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw,"for the participants of the carousel, the medalist Heinrich Paul Groskurt made at least 100 silver medals on royal order." How many of them have survived these 300 years, we do not know....
For the first time in our offer.
Listings at world auctions few.
