Description
Manuscript, Ink and coloured pigments on parchment, heightened in gold, with 4 pendant wax seals encased in wood (Very Good, some minor warping wear to edges of parchment with minor loss to notarial marginal notes at bottom, else details and illumination sharp and clean, some cracking to wax seals, with contemporary dated notary stamp), parchment: 49.4 x 63.6 cm (19.5 x 25 inches).
This magnificent noble family tree features a line of the Bohemian-Moravian division of the Schaffgotsch house, including members of the houses of Fürstenberg, Blümegen, Zierotin, Herberstein. The family arms of each member are exquisitely painted, with details heightened in gold. It is based on the ancestry of Josepha Gräfin Schaffgotsch zu Kynast-Greiffenstein (1819 – 1899) and goes back a further four generations to the late 17th Century, altogether including 30 of her ancestors. Josepha was the daughter of Johann Joseph Graff Schaffgotsch (1794 – 1874) and Maria Landgräfin von Fürstenberg (1792 – 1863), and was married to Hermann Freiherr von Diller-Hess (d. 1870).
The Schaffgotsch family is an old and august noble house, established in Silesia since the 13th Century. The sons of Hans von Schaffgotsch zu Kynast und Kemnitz (d. 1469) founded two distinct lines of the family. Anton von Schaffgotsch zu Schildau (d. 1508) established the family in Bohemia and Moravia, while his brother Kaspar von Schaffgotsch zu Fischbach (d. 1534) continued a line in Silesia.
The Bohemian-Moravian line of the Schaffgotsch house was raised to become Bohemian barons (Freiherr) in 1674 and counts (Graf) in 1681, and many of their members held senior roles in the civil and ecclesiastical admiration of Bohemia. The present family tree commences (in the far upper left) with Johann Ernst Anton Graf von Schaffgotsch von Kynast-Greiffenstein (1675 – 1747), a direct descendent of Anton von Schaffgotsch zu Schildau. The Schaffgotsch line continues through his son Ernst Wilhelm Graf von Schaffgotsch (1704 – 1766), then to Johann Ernst Graf von Schaffgotsch (1742 – 1825) and on to Johann Joseph Graf von Schaffgotsch zu Kynast und Greiffenstein (1794 – 1874), Josepha’s father. The Bohemia branch of the Schaffgotsch house remained in Bohemia and Moravia until 1945, and died out in 1993.
Going back 4 generations, members of four other important houses appear on the present family tree, including August Ferdinand Graf von Herberstein (d. 1767); Johann Ludwig Graf von Zierotin (1699 – 1761); Prosper Ferdinand Graf von Fürstenberg-Stühlingen (1662 -1704); and Hermann Jodocus Graf von Blümegen (1672 – 1733).
The present family tree was notarized in Brno on April 3, 1837, and features notarial stamps on the top and notarial lines and countersignatures on the bottom.
