[Polish Army - cigarette case by photographer Corporal Zygmunt Kukiela]. [not after 1938]. Silver - punching:.

[PolishArmy - cigarette case by photographer Corporal Zygmunt Kukiela]. [not after 1938]. Silver - punctuation: in oval 2, head of woman in headscarf, M/W. Dimensions ca 8x11 cm.
Impressive memento of a photographer and soldier of the Home Army and General Anders' 2nd Polish Corps, given to him by an unidentified person. Rectangular silver cigarette case of Polish manufacture from the interwar period (sterling silver 2 (875) - the Warsaw Assay Office hallmark used between 1931-1963). The lid decorated with a linear ornament. On the face in the center a legion eagle and covered with gold - in the upper left corner a monogram: "ZK", in the right a shield of the coat of arms with a jewel. Inside engravings: "'Zetka' in memory of Shopping P.Z. Inż. 1/3-38" and less clear: "To Dear Zbyszek Stefan Chałupka vel Tatkin[?]". Weight: approximately 150 grams. Silver patinaed in places, gilding rubbed off, overall good condition.
Cpl. Zygmunt Kukiela "Zetka" was born on May 29, 1921 in Vilnius. In 1925 his family moved to Warsaw, where he passed his high school diploma in 1939. During the occupation he lived in Saska Kepa. Initially he worked at the Polish Optical Works, and from 1943 he worked at a photo store at 125 Marszalkowska Street, owned by the famous photographer Henryk Poddębski. Together with his brothers Antoni and Jozef, he was active in an underground Home Army cell in Praga. His group was supposed to attack the East Railway Station, but the Uprising surprised him in a store on Marszalkowska Street. After the outbreak of fighting, he joined the "Stefan" Assault Company, with the position of staff photographer for the 4th District, Maj. Stanislaw Steczkowski "Zagonczyk." After the Uprising he was imprisoned in Stalag VII B in Memmingen, Bavaria. In 1945-1946 he was a soldier in General Anders' 2nd Polish Corps. After returning to Poland in 1947, he established a private enterprise, producing plastic products. He also served as head of the Fencing Section of KS "Warszawianka". He died on May 25, 2002 in Warsaw. During the Uprising, with a Leica camera borrowed from Henryk Poddębski, he immortalized the soldiers of the "Stefan" Assault Company of the "Rum" Battalion and the commanders from the staff of the 4th District of the Śródmieście District. He primarily documented the daily life of the insurgents - assemblies, free time, ceremonies and funerals. Most of the photos were taken in August 1944 in Srodmiescie Północny, in the courtyard of a tenement house at 125 Marszalkowska Street and in the vicinity of the Capitol Cinema at the rear of the property, which was ruined in September 1939. The original negatives were burned during a fire in the tenement, in the photographic studio located on the first floor. Only the prints that Zygmunt Kukiela gave out as souvenirs to his photographed colleagues have survived from his rich output. (Biography from the website of the Warsaw Uprising Museum - https://www.1944.pl/fototeka/kolekcja/zygmunt-kukiela-zetka,129.html).