Countess Krasicki von Siecin auction signals tragic final chapter for society darling
The upcoming sale of antiques, artefacts and property belonging to Lady Primrose Potter’s daughter, the Countess Krasicki von Siecin, signals the tragic final chapter for the society darling, Annette Sharp writes.
NSW
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An ad for the forthcoming auction of antiques, artefacts and property belonging to Countess Krasicki von Siecin and her mother Lady Primrose Potter AC brought sad news last week concerning one of Sydney society’s most talked-about women.
Melbourne auction house Leonard Joel has advertised the May 24 “decorative arts” auction of property belonging to the high-profile women.
The catalogue notification follows the sale of Countess Krasicki’s Brighton East home last month, the property realising $3.2m.
Countess Krasicki, as long-time readers of these pages may recall, was once more commonly known as Primrose “Pitty Pat” Dunlop, stepdaughter of deceased millionaire stockbroker Sir Ian Potter and his third wife, the commanding and socially astute Lady Primrose Potter, formerly of Elizabeth Bay but of Spring St, Melbourne, since 1995.
Having spent her formative years studying abroad where she became fluent in Polish and Italian, Bellevue Hill-raised Ascham-educated “Pitty Pat” became a popular social writer for The Sunday Telegraph in the 1980s.
It was a job she quit ahead of her engagement in 1989 to Qantas steward Lorenzo Montesini.
The couple’s love-match became one of Sydney society’s greatest modern scandals when, on the eve of their lavish 1990 Venetian wedding, the groom ran away with his best man and long-time love, Robert Straub.
The desertion made international headlines and left deep wounds that would force both mother and daughter to quit their elegant Sydney circle – where they counted among friends Billy and Sonia McMahon, Caroline and John Laws, Leo Schofield, the McLeods, Copplesons, Peacocks and Frosts – and relocate to Melbourne.
The bride robustly denied rumours the union was engineered by her mother to help “Pitty Pat” to a title and her mother’s friend, Montesini, to a fortune.
“I know they’re saying it and it’s a load of rubbish,” she said before the planned wedding.
“I’ve got titles in my own family, from England.”
Robbed of her claim to Montesini’s “courtesy title” – Prince Giustiniani, Count of Phanaar, Knight of St Sophia and Baron Alexandroff – “Pitty Pat” would find greater luck in Melbourne where it turned out a delightful real estate agent known locally as George Kirk was in possession of a title of his own.
A new wedding date was set and in 1993 “Pitty Pat” married Count Jerzy Krasicki von Siecin, becoming Countess Primrose Krasicki into the bargain and welcoming a cherished daughter, Zofia, now aged about 26.
By all accounts the couple lived a happy life together until George’s death in 2018, when the Countess’ health began to decline.
Last week her mother, Lady Potter, confirmed her daughter was now in full-time care, a tragedy that had prompted the sale of her redundant home and property.
“She was diagnosed with right frontal lobe dementia,” her still sharp
90-year-old mother informed this column.
“The bright lovely girl is no more.”
Lady Potter said her 66-year-old daughter’s decline had been fast. The once sharp-witted “Pitty Pat” was placed in care 18 months ago.
Lady Potter added she understood this type of dementia was “quiet common for that age group”.
“Her brother is the same. I have to wonder if it’s the telephones, the mobile devices they hold to their heads …” she speculated.
Meanwhile, Lady Potter remains close to her granddaughter, Zofia, a beauty who has inherited her grandmother and mother’s photogenic disposition and who, in 2015, was among 25 debutantes to make her society debut at an exclusive invitation-only ball in Paris.
With the London design student’s eyes seemingly focused on a life abroad in the UK and Europe, Zofia may have little use for her mother’s treasured property, among which, according to Leonard Joel’s auction catalogue, is “silver, porcelain, antiquities” and sculptures – the hallmarks of a once glittering high society life ended too soon.
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