Instytut Sztuki (Warschau) [Hrsg.]; Państwowy Instytut Sztuki (bis 1959) [Hrsg.]; Stowarzyszenie Historyków Sztuki [Hrsg.]: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki (78.2016)

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Michał Myśliński

Characteristics of Polish State Hallmarking
- European Genesis of the Local Mark

Having regained independence in 1918, the
government of the reestablished country was faced
with the necessity to establish Polish hallmarking
administration, unifying the hallmarking systems
operating for 123 years on the territories that had
previously formed part of the Russian, Austrian, and
Prussian partitions. A symptom ofthis change can be
found in the set of Polish hallmarking from ca 1920/
21, finally introduced as of 1 January 1922. The
features of the marks, applied to this very day with
minor changes only, present an effigy of a woman in a
scarf (silver) and a hussar in a helmet (gold), these
augmented with a letter referring to the city where the

Assay Office is located, and with appropriate figures
defining the standard of fineness.
Polish hallmarking constitutes a peculiar
„resultant" of the marks applied in Russia and Austria:
what they have in common are such characteristic
elements as the hallmark shape, the figures filling
them, marking for the town where the Assay Office is
located, as well as the standard of fineness. This
operation allowed to introduce in Poland a new system
of hallmarking that is obviously clear on the territories
of the former partitions. There are, however, no records
that would permit to see any symbolic or historical
meanings in Polish hallmarking.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska