Anna Piskorz

The Jagiellonian University Museum has 18th-century châtelaines in its collection. Their accessories are missing but they are still of interest because of their design and its function, now completely forgotten. Showing a group similar artefacts from different museum collections another helps the viewers to acquaint themselves with changing tastes and fashion trends, and familiarise themselves with little known products of artistic crafts. The portrait of Maria Pusłowska is an excellent iconographic source for fashion studies. The portrait was published many times, but this time with the commentary on the jewellery depicted to complement its theme. The watch once owned by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, of Patek, Philippe & Cie manufacture, with an impressive watch chain reflects the fashion in artistic handicraft in the early 20th century – the time when men’s watches were worn with chains.

The wall hanging which adorned the drawing room of the Estreichers – Professor Stanisław Estreicher, the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, and his wife Helena née Longchamps de Berier – was made at the famous textile manufacture of the Count Potocki family, operating in the years 1878–1939 in Buchach, Podoliya. It is one of the textiles which were manufactured in the workshops owned by Oskar Potocki, which on the turn of the 19th/20th century manufactured silk hangings, decorative textiles, fabrics for Polish national costumes (żupan) and Polish sashes.
The wall hanging (silk, metallic thread, jacquard technique) with motifs modelled after Italian Renaissance textiles (a rhomboid net created by flower springs with flower bush motifs inside the eyes of the net, and bordure with motifs of palmettes arranged alternately in rows) was made by a weaver from the Nagórzański family, in Count. Oskar Potocki’s workshop, between 1897 and 1904. The Jagiellonian University Museum at Collegium Maius has seven Buchach hangings, including one with the motif of Polish nobility sashes from Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s collection, also manufactured by Oskar Potocki’s workshop.
 

The presentation of the officer’s coat dating from 1923 kept in the collection of the Jagiellonian University Museum reminds us of the reform of uniforms in the Polish Army after Poland regained independence and discusses the fashion for a certain type of buttons used by the officers in military uniforms. The coat was made by the tailor Moszek (Mojżesz) Spinka. The coat and the rules applicable to tailor-made clothes at the time, the country’s economic situation, as well as the coat’s connection with the private life of its owner are discussed. The owner, Franciszek Xawery Pusłowski (1875–1968), served in the 8th Prince Józef Poniatowski Uhlans Regiment, was a liaison officer to Ignacy Jan Paderewski and deputy aid-de-camp general to the President of the Republic of Poland Stanisław Wojciechowski.
 

The Museum holds a number of paintings and drawings by Stanislaw Wyspianski. As well as that, there are two interesting functional objects complementing the collection: a quill pen used by the poet to write ‘November Night’ finished in 1904, secured with great care by Tadeusz Estreicher, and a casket made by Wyspianski. The pen used by the poet is of sentimental value only, although the casket, which he made for his wife, has kept its practical value, and proves the artist’s interest in the craftwork.