Warsaw Fraget jug made for the Gdynia-America shipping line

Warsaw (Warszawa) ... in the 19th century was the capital of the Polish Kingdom (Królestwo Polskie), an autonomous region inside the Russian Empire. At the end of the 19th Century most of the Russian silver plate production was concentrated in Poland, and about ten foundries producing silver plate were operating in Warsaw. Among them the most interesting Art Nouveau objects were produced by “FRAGET” and by another Warsaw foundry, “NORBLIN”.
The Fraget factory was founded by two French businessmen – the brothers Alphonse (Alfons) and Joseph (in Polish, Józef) Fraget in 1824. However, after 1841 Joseph Fraget became the sole owner of this company. In the fifties-sixties of the 19th Century, the firm turned to the production of electroplated silver items and exported them mainly to the Russian market. The products of the Fraget firm soon turned out to be extremely popular. Since, any silver-plated item in the Russian Empire was called simply “fraget”. In 1867 Joseph Fraget died, and his business was inherited by his son Julian. In 1905, Julian was assassinated and from 1906 Fraget was managed by Julian’s daughter, Maria Antonina, who died in 1934. In 1939 with the start of World War II, the Fraget company stopped its activity.

Gdynia America Line

Formed in 1930 by the Polish Government to operate cargo and passenger services between Gdynia, Copenhagen, Halifax and New York. A service to Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo and Buenos Aires started in 1936, and Mediterranean sailings between Constanza, Haifa and Istanbul. The South America service ceased on the outbreak of war in 1939, but the New York service resumed in 1947. For political reasons, the BATORY was banned from New York in 1951 and transferred to the India / Pakistan service until 1956. She was then used on the Quebec - Montreal service.