The Estern Apartment, The Dining Room

This is where, from 1958 to
1970, ambassadors of China and the United States held secret talks which
led to the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The table standing here is decorated with a round sourtout de table
tray, with a mirror surface (Poland?, mid-19th century). On two Baroque
commodes (Poland, c. 1730) are marble busts of Katarzyna Czacka and
Szczęsny Czacki, made in Rome in 1808 by an Italian sculptor Felice
Feste. On the mantelpiece of the marble fireplace (1938) visitors can
see a clock made of gilded bronze, with a figurine of sitting Chronos,
made by the Derniere company from Paris (mid-19th century).

Among the paintings hanging in the dining room, a portrait of King
Stanisław August (replica from Bacciarelli’s workshop) above the
fireplace is worth contemplating. From among other paintings – mainly
from Dutch and Flemish schools of late 17th century – the following
works can be distinguished: Boy Eating Peas from Pod and Boy Drinking Wine by Jan van der Meer, Harbour by Jan van Goyen, Italian Landscape by Dirk van Dalens, Ships on a Sea by Bonaventura Peeters, Portrait of a Boy by Carl Fabritius (Rembrandt’s student), as well as 18th-century copies of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait.