The Sobieskis and Stuarts. Clementina’s slipper, Władysław Roman Sztolcman, 1916

pencil, ink, and watercolour on paper, 1916
National Museum in Warsaw

Few memorabilia and items belonging to Clementina Sobieska survive today. Until World War II, the Archaeological Cabinet of the University of Warsaw held a “scarlet silk slipper embroidered with white silk” lined with white goatskin, which, according to the description, had formerly belonged to Clementina. 

A watercolour drawing by Władysław Roman Sztolcman (1873–1950), an illustrator, documentarian, conservator, and designer from Warsaw, depicts the slipper in its natural size.

The Archaeological Cabinet of the University of Warsaw opened in 1871. Its collection also included items of historical value, such as Sobieska’s shoe. The drawing by Sztolcman was made during an inventory of the collection, which was not yet catalogued at the time.

The pair of slippers, of which one was illustrated by Sztolcman, remains in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw and is currently on permanent display. However, the shoes are no longer thought to have belonged to Clementina, and are now catalogued as a product from the second half of the 18th century.