Beata Frontczak

Problem of animal representations in applied art on the example of an inkwell from the Jagellonian University Museum’s Collection
A 19th-century inkwell in the form of a cross spider which can be found in the Jagiellonian University collection represents a large group of Viennese bronze figurines. It was probably manufactured at Franz Bergmann’s shop in Vienna in 1894. In the same year it was bought by Zygmunt Pusłowski in Kraków, most likely at Wilhelm Fenz’s shop (Skład Towarów Galanteryjnych). The inkwell was cast, then chasing and painting were applied, faithfully rendering the specimen’s morphology detail. Despite some anatomic inaccuracies, one can identify the species, sex and age of the original specimen. It can be assumed that the workshop marketed a series of inkwells in the form of spiders. A similar inkwell which has survived in a private collection, features a naturalistically rendered spider with the inkwell container hidden in its abdomen – in this case it is a Theridiidae (tangle-web) spider. The same anatomical errors may be found in both items, but in both cases a similar care for detail, also in taxonomic terms, is shown. Interestingly, the artist has chosen both specimens belonging to synanthropic species which people can see around. While the garden spider was modelled after a live spider during its everyday occupations, the representative of the Steatoda was dead. It was probably found somewhere in the cellar or a cubbyhole.
The figurines were made using the lost-wax casting technique, using a plaster mould, thanks to which precision in rendering detail was possible. The manufacturer faithfully rendered tiny details of the model, but its size was enlarged nearly 1000 times. The items are of interest in the cultural context as well – the spider motif has a symbolic meaning which may be retraced back to the ancient era and which was evolving until the late-19th-century symbolism.

The first part of the article discusses a so far unpublished notarial deed of sale in 1845 by the Pusłowski brothers: Xawery Pusłowski (1806–1874), Wandalin Pusłowski (1814–1884), Franciszek Pusłowski (1800–1859) and Władysław Pusłowski (1801–1859), to Duchess Teresa of Drucki-Lubecki, Countess Scipio del Campo, half of the Ćmielów estate with annexes and appurtenances they inherited from their father, Wojciech Pusłowski, who died in 1833. The deed recorded in the register of documents of the Warsaw Notary Office has not survived. All the more valuable is a document held in the Manuscripts Department of the Jagiellonian Library, the second main extract of a deed of sale, drawn up in Warsaw on 29 May 1845 by Marcin Ciechanowski, scribe of the records of the Kingdom of Poland and regent of the Land Registry of the Warsaw Governorate. The first main extract, given to Teresa of the Drucki-Lubecki Dukes, Countess Scipio del Campo, was not preserved in the Szczuczynski Archives of the Drucki-Lubecki Dukes, held in the Czartoryski Library in Krakow. The second part of the article presents 39 pieces of Ćmielów porcelain vessels from five Drucki-Lubecki family services ordered in the Ćmielów factory at a time when the Drucki-Lubecki dukes were co-owners or sole proprietors of the Ćmielów estate and the faience, stoneware and porcelain factory in Ćmielów. Particularly valuable are dishes from the service dating from 1839 to 1851, bearing the monograms MD.L., Duchess Maria Drucka-Lubecka, wife of Duke Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki. The marks used on Ćmielów porcelain previously unknown in the literature were published. Basis on entries in the French press, the names of three French specialists (Auguste Teissonnière, Jules Teissonnière, Louis Delagnier) have been determined, which have so far been incorrectly reported in the literature.

Until 1794, silverware and gold statue of Madonna and Child funded as a votive offering for blessings received by Jan Warzyniec Wodzicki, the Deputy Cup-bearer of Warsaw, was kept in Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków. Wodzicki donated several items to his parish church: in 1690 he made a gift of six altar candlesticks, in 1692 a gold statue of a Madonna and Child on a gilt silver pedestal and a pair of kneeling angels on pedestals identical to the pedestal of the Madonna statue, and on 12 July 1694 a five-piece silver antependium. In the Archive of the Wodzicki Family from Kościelniki, kept in the Ossolineum Library in Wrocław, the author of this article has found two cost estimates for making the above mentioned silverware, except for the antependium, issued in Warsaw on 9 May 1694 by Rad & Hößlin, a trading house from Augsburg. Christopher von Rad I and Bartholomäus Hößlin (Hösslin), jewellers and goldsmiths from Augsburg, established their company in 1690. The documents found by the author are the first ones to confirm that the above mentioned jewellers from Augsburg operated in Poland. The first cost estimate (Annex I) tells us that Wodzicki gave 1,100 ducats (1,114 Augsburg ducats) for the figure of Madonna and Child. The labour cost of both figures, a case and a travelling bag was 559 imperial thalers and 11 kreutzers (the cost of a wax model and forming the body out of gold sheet cost 35 imperial thalers, whereas the repoussage of the body cost 498 imperial thalers and 11 kreutzers). In accordance with the second specification (Annex II), the goldsmith was paid 1,847 imperial thalers and 30 kreutzers for the candlesticks. The labour cost of making two statues of angels on pedestals was 536 imperial thalers and 22½kreutzers, whereas making the pedestal for the statue of the Madonna and Child cost 182 imperial thalers and 78 kreutzers. The cost estimate of the silver antependium for the main altar has not survived. The inventory of Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków shows that the five-piece antependium weighed 206 grzywnas (ancient Polish measure of weight) and cost 14,856 tymf (Polish silver coins).

The works were most probably the result of one workshop, and were perhaps by Abraham II Drentwett (1647–1729), a goldsmith, wax sculptor and draughtsman from Augsburg.

During the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, the above mentioned silverware, except for the statues of angels, were taken from the treasury of the basilica by the Order Committee established by Tadeusz Kościuszko and melted down to support the uprising. In 1807, the two statues of angels funded by Wodzicki were sold to goldsmiths from Kraków.