The sceptre was made for Stanisław August Poniatowski by Jean Martin, a jeweller active in Warsaw. It is made up of three octagonally-cut aquamarine stones bound together with golden ferrules in the form of acanthus leaves.
When Stanisław August died in 1798, his private sceptre was taken by the Russian tsars who placed it in the Kremlin. It was returned to the Royal Castle under the Treaty of Riga signed in 1921. Before WW2, it was deposited at the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego [the National Economy Bank], then exported to the Polish Embassy in Paris, whence it was taken to Great Britain in 1940 and later to Canada. It was returned to Poland with other royal regalia in 1959.