On August 3, 1765, Jacques-Antoine Dassier signed a contract engaging him to go to Russia as a medalist. What had led to this point? Why did Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, choose a medalist from Geneva, out of all possibilities, to design coins and medals at her court?

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Dassier’s direct superior was not Shuvalov, but Jacob Staehlin from Swabia. In today’s words, we would probably best describe his tasks as what is known to us as marketing and PR. For example, Staehlin created the impermanent wooden triumphal arches and decorations that were needed for all celebrations of moving out and in. He created the drafts for emblems and tomb monuments. He also thought up such fleeting works of art like the Baroque fireworks which were an indispensable element of every court festival. He represented what we would nowadays call corporate identity – making sure that the Empress’s appearance was always flawless, whatever the circumstances.

His tasks included supervising the production of coins and medals and defining the inscriptions and motifs, and thus, he became Jacques-Antoine Dassier’s superior. We know that the two artists got along perfectly. And thanks to Staehlin’s writings, we are very well informed about Dassier’s work.

After his arrival, Dassier worked on three projects simultaneously: on a nowadays extremely rare medal for his patron Shuvalov, on a die for ruble pieces and on the die for the item that is offered at Künker on January 28, 2021 – a 10-ruble piece from 1757.

Dassier’s tasks and income

Dassier had not been employed just to make dies. His two-year contract specifically stipulated that he should teach “the art of engraving coins and medals to as many Russian students as required”. For this, he was paid 2,500 rubles a year, plus 250 Dutch ducats to cover travel expenses, and another 500 rubles for paying an assistant who would support him in his work. Besides, he probably enjoyed free lodging.

After two years, Dassier renegotiated. He now received a yearly salary of 3,000 rubles, plus 500 rubles for every die he completed. This is all the more astounding as it turned out that, due to his ever-worsening tuberculosis, Dassier was in fact unable to teach young artists on a regular basis.

Instead, Staehlin and Shuvalov discussed his participation in a medal suite of 150 to 180 items, dedicated to the achievements of Peter the Great.

 By that time, though, Jacques-Antoine Dassier was already so severely ill that he wished to return home. In the fall of 1759, he boarded an English ship, but only made it to Copenhagen. Testimony of his importance is the fact that the Danish Prime Minister himself accommodated Dassier in his own home, where he died on October 21, 1759.

An exquisite provenance

The coin offered by Künker, testimony of Jacques-Antoine Dassier’s activities in Russia, was once part of the collection of Count (and numismatist) Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, as we can see from the collector’s hallmark. This well-known Polish nobleman, who gave his name to the numismatic museum of Krakow, the “Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Museum”, worked in the Russian administration. During his stay in Russia, he gathered an extensive collection of Russian coins and medals, which he sold between 1882 and 1884 in order to expand his specialty field, Poland.

 By the way, in 2017 Künker offered a ruble of Peter the Great dated 1707 from the Hutten-Czapski collection. In 2019 there was a set of three platinum coins from the Hutten-Czapski collection in a Künker sale. The ruble sold for 290.000 euros, the platinum set for 750.000 euros.

 Which price will the Dassier 10 ruble piece score? We shall see …