The American padlock Samson Eight Lever. How did it end up in the Świątniki Museum? It bears traces of levering up the sheet metal. Somebody probably wanted to check how its mechanism worked. Initially, padlock makers from Świątniki watched how others did it. On the basis of the knowledge gained in this way, they created their own mechanisms, being a compilation of those peeped at others.
The presented epaulettes were used as props at the Matejko school of historical painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.
Shirt buckle – a decoration appearing in a costume of the Podhale region, used to fasten a man's shirt on the chest. It was purchased for the collection of the Tatra Museum by Juliusz Zborowski, a director of this institution, from Ignacy Prokop “Magdziarz” of Ratułów for the price of three million Polish marks in 1924.
Guild maces symbolised the power of guild seniors. They looked like the military maces of the officers back then. The mace consisted of a shaft and a head composed of radially arranged insets called feathers. The exhibit presented here belonged to the Kraków guild of bricklayers, masons and carpenters. It was made of brass, the handle was covered with decorative, gilded metal plates; the feathers with openwork floral decorations were silvered.
This double-barrelled flintlock was used as a prop in the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. The flintlock handgun shows many signs of usage...
A leather belt fastened with two buckles, covered with fittings made of brass sheet decorated with cast plant ornaments. The belt fittings consist of alternating plates in the shape of rectangles with...
A breastplate made from a sheet of iron, lined with riveted brass, cut out trimmings along the edges. Decorated in the middle with a Maltese cross made from a brass sheet fastened with rivets.
The armour is made of iron sheet; at the edges and faulds it is lined with brass borders covered with repoussé and stamped pearls. Under the rivets there are laid brass rosettes decorated in the same way as the borders. A helmet has a semi-circular skull, a peak with a nasal bar, a fauld neck guard and cheek pieces with a heart-shaped cut. A five-fauld breastplate with a fishbone in the middle tied with two leather straps.
A unfolding case used for playing backgammon, chess and so-called “Polish draughts” is an example of the activity of workshops operating in Eger in the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th centuries. Their works enjoyed popularity in Europe at that time, due to their interesting designs and unique method of colourful relief intarsia applied for ornamentation.
Coming probably from Turkey, a beautifully decorated zither from the turn of the 19th century; artistic handwork. A bottom board of a sound box is made of a coniferous tree wood, glued together out of three parts, painted dark brown. Veneered sides, the top part of the sound box from the edge to the tailpiece is covered with parchment leather; the string nodes are made of bone.
