Antoine Patek

Antoni Norbert Patek de Prawdzic was born in 1812 to a prominent family in Piaski Szlacheckie near Lublin in the Duchy of Warsaw to Anna née Piasecka and Joachim Patek of Prawdzic coat of arms. At the age of 10, Patek moved with his parents to Warsaw where his father died on 7 April 1828.

On 1 March 1828, 16-year-old Patek joined the Polish 1st Mounted Rifles Regiment. He fought in the Polish November Uprising against Russian rule during which he was wounded twice. On 27 February 1831, for his heroic attitude Patek was promoted the second lieutenant of the "1 August" brigade, and on 3 October the same year decorated with Virtuti Militari Golden Cross. After the downfall of the uprising – like many other officers and soldiers of Polish Army – he had to emigrate.

In 1832 he was engaged by general Józef Bem in organising an evacuation route for Polish insurgents through Prussia to France. He was charged with a command over a staging point in Bamberg near Munich (one of five staging points on the insurgents' evacuation route). After terminating the evacuation, Patek settled in France, firstly in Cahors, then in Amiens where he worked as a type-setter.

Two years later an unfavourable decree issued by the French government under pressure from the Russian embassy, forced many former insurgents to resettle in Switzerland. Patek tried his hand at many trades, including trading with liquors and wines in Versoix near Geneva. For some time Patek attended painting courses given by the famous Swiss painter and engraver Alexandre Calame. During his studies, Patek also traveled to Paris where he remained for several months. Around this time, he was befriended by the Moreau family of Versoix, at whose home he would meet his future wife. They probably encouraged him in a new activity – the trade in expensive pocket watches, which were decorated by the goldsmiths, engravers, enamellers and miniaturists of the time. He thus started by buying movements of watches which he got to the Geneva watchmakers already known for the quality of their products and, under his direction, made them furnish with cases. From the very start, he attached highest importance to the quality and the artistic value of work and rather quickly managed to find the market where such creations of exceptional quality were highly appreciated.

On 20 July 1839 in Versoix, Patek married Marie Adélaïde Elisabeth Thomasine Dénizart, a daughter of a French tradesman Louis Charles Dénizart from Turin, and of his wife Marie Jeanne Adélaïde Elisabeth, née Devimes. Antoni and Marie de Patek had three children. The first one, Boleslas Joseph Alexandre Thomas (Bolesław Józef Aleksander Tomasz), born on 16 June 1841, died on 18 September the same year. The two others were born much later, when Marie de Patek already was respectively 39 and 41 year old: a son, Leon Mecislas Vincent (Leon Mieczysław Wincenty), 19 July 1857, and one girl, Marie Edwige (Maria Jadwiga), 23 October 1859.

In 1843, Patek was naturalized in Geneva and thus acquired Swiss nationality. However, he did not cease his political activity of a Polish emigrant and did not stop in his efforts to bring his assistance to the refugees. Thus, in 1838, he supported the initiative of a group of Polish emigrants for the establishment of the "Polish Foundation", an organization of mutual aid which was founded the following year and of which he became the treasurer and one of the most active members. In May 1844, he took part in the installation of a Polish Library with a salon of lecture in Geneva. Persuaded of the need for a centralization of the organizations of Polish emigrants, he recommended to the Poles residing in Geneva to collaborate with the commission of the "Funds of Polish Emigration" and the Polish Library in Paris. In the years 1843, 1845 and 1847 he requested the support of prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski for this society. On 18 May 1846, Patek adhered to the Polish Democratic Society of Lyon and, during the Spring of Nations in 1848, he went secretly to Frankfurt am Main to propose there, at the time of the meeting on 6 March of Dozór Polski, the convocation of the Polish Parliament in exile.

The political activities of Patek during the January Uprising in 1863 were described by Julian Aleksander Bałaszewicz, writing under the pseudonym of Albert Potocki. After the crushing of the insurrection, Patek brought his assistance to the refugees arriving to Geneva and maintained the relations with the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, (Polish: Zmartwychwstańcy), in Paris. Thereafter, the pope Pius IX conferred on Patek the title of a count, in recognition of the services rendered as well as an active Catholic, as within the community of the Polish emigrants. Unfortunately, the files of the Vatican do not preserve documents providing information about the date and the nature of this distinction.

Antoni Patek died in Geneva and was buried in a local cemetery in Chatelaine.