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 Cardinal Priest Karol Wojtyła’s fountain pen Pelikan fountain pen with a piston filling used by Priest Karol Wojtyła. The casing is made of plastic, inlaid with synthetic nacre in the form of alternate stripes. It is constructed from black ebonite with the nib partly gilded with the name of the company on it. |
 Mace – a prop from the School of Fine Arts or The Fowler Brotherhood A gilded mace with a head consisting of six blades, probably a copy of a historical weapon serving as military insignia. It was used as a prop in the School of Fine Arts in Kraków and was presented in the still art painted by Tomasz Lisiewicz (1857–1930) and displayed in MVM (M 8). |
 Apothecary vessel The vessel comes from the 2nd half of the 18th century and is made of colourless glass. There is a little white lettering piece on it with a signature in two-coloured majuscule: ESS. THERIACALIS (Essentia theriacalis) syn. Tinctura theriacalis. The medicine contained, among others, theriac. |
 Signboard with movable types (the Foltin family) The signboard promoted services and products offered by Leon Foltin, who was a car mechanic and an enthusiast of motorisation in the pre-war period in Wadowice. He descended from the famous family of printers who, for almost 100 years, formed the publishing and bookselling market in Wadowice. Three members of the Foltin family with the Franciszek name — grandfather, father and grandson — cherished the printing and publishing tradition in the town. |
 Sculpture “Madonna of Krużlowa” The figure passes as the most perfect sculptural work of art of the so-called Beautiful style epoch (around 1400) within the Małopolska region. A repertoire of forms elaborated previously in stone sculptures was transformed into a wooden sculpture (so-called Beautiful Madonnas); characteristic cascades of folds at the sides, frontal folds running through Mary’s torso at a semicircle, shaping the letter V below, and even lower, on a pedestal spreading widely, as an optical base of the figure. |
 Powder box A round box with a cover; it was probably used as a powder box, in the colour of milk, decorated with medallions and a blue floral painted pattern. The glass inside the powder box was painted with cobalt, hence the blue colour. |
 Sculpture “St. Stanislaus” (“St. Martin of Tours”?) The sculpture was made of polychrome and gilded lime wood. It presents the Saint in bishop’s robes, in a lively position: his body is slightly turned to the left and bent, his left leg lunged. The bishop is holding the hem of the coat in his right hand. With his left hand, he is picking up a man with a moustache from the ground, dressed in a short hooded coat and trousers, depicted in a reduced scale. |
 Chest of the tailors’ guild and related guilds in Kęty The tailors’ guild chest is the oldest guild chest in the collection of the Aleksander Kłosiński Museum in Kęty. Tailors from Kęty set up one of the oldest guilds in town. Also, the oldest surviving charter issued by King Sigismund Augustus in 1558, mentioning the guild chest belonging to them. Unfortunately, the chest from that period has not survived, but a chest somewhat younger, made in 1792, belongs to the museum collection. |
 Mace A mace, that is a blunt weapon consisting of a handle and a head created of vertically placed flangs (feathers), was commonly used in the Polish army of the 17th and 18th centuries, as an insignia indicating the rank of rittmeister or colonel. According to tradition, the presented mace was owned by Stefan Czarniecki, the Castellan of Kiev, later the Field Crown Hetman. |
 Sculpture “Mother of God of Skępe” Sculptures representing the Mother of God of Skępe were modelled after a Gothic figurine of Mary the Servant from the Bernardine Church in Skępe near Toruń. The legendary beginning of the sanctuary is associated with the year of 1495, when the church was founded and where the unusual glowing person had appeared. |
 Marble plaque commemorating the burial site of queen Jadwiga A plaque of black marble from Dębnik, situated to the north of the base of the main altar in the Wawel cathedral. The entire eastern part of the chancel is elevated above the floor level and forms a spacious platform for celebrations of liturgical ceremonies. In the middle of it and on the sides, there are three identical protrusions.
In 1605, an Italian stonemason, Ambrogio Meazzi, was commissioned to dismantle the fence in front of St Erasmus altar (the ciborium was relocated to the Chapel of Our Lady) and move the tomb of Frederick Jagiellon, as well as to change the layout of stairs leading to the main altar. |
 Eagle of Silesian Region police This is an eagle from the autonomous coat of arms of the Silesian Voivodeship, the design referring to the medieval Silesian eagle, with a characteristic band on the wings. Made from a thin brass metal sheet, gilded, with a hook made separately. |
 Coffee set designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz Small is beautiful...
Museums are usually associated with large cool rooms with beautiful paintings hanging on the walls and accompanied by remarkable sculptures. In this totally undisturbed silence the works arouse universal respect and admiration. Are museums just about paintings and sculptures? |
 Cartonnage mask This anonymous cartonnage mask probably dates back to the Ptolemaic period (306–30 BC). The mask is gilded on the face but eyes, pupils and eyebrows are marked black. It has a typical blue wig (nemes). The representation of the deceased is definitely idealised and it bears no distinguishing features. |
 Silver cup from Ryzhanivka This mug was part of the tomb gifts of the ‘princess’ from Ryzhanovka. It rested in a bronze situla, which probably contributed to the fact that it was in perfect condition. The entire vessel is carved out of one piece of metal. The ornament consists of vertical forged stripes, centred around... |
 Kiddush goblet Kiddush translates from Hebrew as “sanctification.” The ceremony is celebrated at the beginning of the Sabbath and other holidays, by saying a special blessing over a cup of red sweet wine (or red grape juice). |
 “Roztruchan” decorative cup Aside from its practical functions, the silver tableware collected and stored in Old Polish houses also had representative functions. There was also a separate group of dishes of a primarily decorative character, whose original, sophisticated form, perfection of composition, and materials used for their production were to dazzle and delight the guests. |
 Small vase “kantharos” In the Korzec collection in Tarnów, which numbers 450 inventory items, a small vase of the kantharos type deserves special attention. Vases of this type served as decorations and were produced on the occasion of anniversaries or other events. The excellent quality of the product and the elegance of its form and decorations prove the high level of manufacturing quality in the 1st two decades of the 19th century. In Polish museum collections, a similar small vase can be found in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. |
 Cup from Michael Wissmar workshop The chalice foot is made on a six-leaf plan, the foot coat and a hexagonal sleeve are decorated with a grapevine spike on a gold-plated background, with six silver medallions with engraved scenes: the Birth of Christ, the Last Supper, the Risen Christ, the Gathering of Manna, the Grape Harvest, the Harvest. |
 Chalice and paten The chalice was made in a Roman workshop around 1360. It is set on a ten-leaved foot base with a pedestal, decorated with a geometric decoration strip. The chalice foot is covered with a smooth coat, with an applied medallion containing an engraved coat of arms surrounded by laurel leaves in the field and on the opposite side of the coat with an enamelled cameo showing a Crucifixion Group. The upper base is finished with a ring with a strip of geometric decoration analogous to the base. |
