Angèle Potocka

From THEODORE LESCHETIZKY, 1903 by Angèle Potocka

...     Like some great lion couchant, jealously mounting guard over his domain, the castle of Lancut spreads its massive length on a richly timbered plain. Besides the private seignorial apartments, the buildings include a picture-gallery, a theater, and nearly two hundred guest-chambers, magnificently decorated and luxuriously furnished ; bearing witness to the liberality of its hospitable owners, whose vast wealth, seconding hereditary taste, has made Lancut a veritable treasure-house, rich in antique porcelains, bronzes, and other works of art. Like all our great Polish families, the Potocki have jealously guarded the chronicles and traditions of their race, setting forth the part they have played in the tragic history of our beloved and once — yes, still — glorious land.

The present [ca. 1901-3] is full of sadness for our country — the future is with God ! and we have the past to look back upon — the past, so full of inspiration even in its most sorrowful moments. Whenever two or more Poles meet, the conversation is sure to turn on the one subject vital alike to high-born lord and lowly peasant — the point where all social distinctions disappear ; and w weep together over the fatal mistake by which the weak and beautiful Poniatowski, sent to Russia as a mere envoy, came back to us as king, the first step toward Poland's downfall. The treachery of Catherine II, her unscrupulous use of her handsome tool ; Frederick II's ready acquiescence, and Maria Theresa's enforced consent to Russia's infamous plane are known to all.     (Etc.)*

Theodore Leschetizky : an Intimate Study of the Man and the Musician
by Comtesse Angele Potocka ; tr. from the French by Genevieve Seymur Lincoln.
New York : The Century Co. 1903, pp. 3-5.

    * From another source I gather that it was Frederick, who had installed one Fräulein Zerbst — daughter of a Prussian officer — as the ruler over the Muscovy.   (WPT, 18 Nov 04).

From Leschetizky as I Knew Him, 1921 by Ethel Newcomb

The bare facts of Theodor Leschetizky's life are well known. His distinguished personality has been the subject of several books and many articles of merit. One book is by the countess Potocka, his sister-in-law, another by Anette Hullah, his pupil.

He was born in Poland, at the Castle of Lancut, near Lemberg, June 22, 1830. His father, a Bohemian by birth, held the position of Music Master to the family of the Potocka. His mother, Therese Von Ullman, was a Pole. Leschetizky died in Dresden in 1915.

( New York : Appleton 1921. )
New York : Da Capo Press 1967. p. vii.

Bibliographic, http://melvyl.cdlib.org   etc.

Author Potocka, Angele, comtesse. Title Theodore Leschetizky ; an intimate study of the man and the musician / by Comtesse Angele Potocka ; tr. from the French by Genevieve Seymur Lincoln. Publisher New York : The Century co., 1903. Description xx, 307 p. : ports., facsims. ; 21 cm. Language English Subject Leschetizky, Theodor, 1830-1915. Added Entry Lincoln, Genevieve Seymour.

Potocka, Angèle, "Anecdotes of Leschetizky,"   The Century Magazine, LXVI/6 (October, 1903), 933-938.
( Source : E. Newcomb, Leschetizky, 1967 edition, p. 307. )