DOI Heft:
Nr. 2-4
DOI Artikel:Kasprzak, Aleksandra J.: The Radziwiłłs of Nieśwież: a contribution to industrial "Mecenate" in the first half of the 18th century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18948#0092
experience and skills of Saxon craftsmen,20 this time brought from a royal
mirror works near Dresden. Initially, the mirror works specialised in production
of mirror plates of different sizes, used in looking-glass studies and galleries,
fashionable in the second ąuarter of the eighteenth century.21 At the same time
English style decorative mirrors in looking-glass frames were produced and in
the second half of the forties also French style mirrors. After modernisation
of the glass kiln, sińce 1750 table glass was produced of character and ąuality
as good as that of the table glass from Naliboki.
Anna Radziwiłł essentially influenced her closest family, for example her
sons, as far as economic activity is concerned. In the twenties and thirties,
absorbed with their own political careers and travels, they took no interest in
economy and manufactures. It was only in the forties that the elder son, the
Grand Hetman of the Lithuanian Army Michał Kazimierz (1702-1762),
making use of his mother’s experience, established first a faience manufacture
in Swierzeń (1742)22 and then the next one in Żółkiew (1747).23 The manufacture
in Swierzeń, like the one in Biała, produced mamly tableware and services for
coffee, tea and chocolate, painted with fashionable and popular patterns.
Sporadically, smali figures were also produced and, on special commission,
ceramic sculptures like the “philosophers”’ busts for the library of the Nieśwież
pałace, around 1748. The faience makers from Żółkiew specialised mainly
in tiles, both white and painted, for various types of stoves, like Saxon and
Lithuanian; smali amounts of table ware were also produced. In 1742 in
✓
Pohorel near Swierzeń a water polisher’s shop of semiprecious Stones was built
where, similar to those in Biała and Jankowicze, mostly decorative ware was
produced, later listed in inventories of the Radziwiłłs’ palaces. One of the
biggest commissions of the Pohorel polisher’s shop was a stone altar for the
Jesuit church of the Holy Virgm in Nieśwież, madę around 1753. In 1744 in
Cumań near Ołyka subseąuent manufactures and an iron foundry with a high
scalę melting furnace were located. The craftsmen employed there not only
melted iron out of the rich iron ore lodes but also specialised in casting. Thus,
numerous mentions of mantelpiece plates with Radziwiłłs’ coats-of-arms and,
occasionally, bells and cannons, produced in co-operation of bell-makers.
By the end of the thirties expansion works and modernisation of the
Nieśwież pałace, the main residence of the Nieśwież lords, began. Many
craftsmen, previously related to the Princess’ court, were moved to analogous
studios in Nieśwież. Due to a large scope of works some of the studios, like
the painters’ atelier, were expanded and employed over a dozen specialists of
sorts. It was during that period that the carpenter’s workshop run by the Saxon
20 A staff of eleven craftsmen of different specialities, who helped to establish the glassworks with
but smali participation of unąualified workers.
21 A.J. Kasprzak, “Gabinet i Galeria Zwierciadlana w pałacu w Białej Radziwiłłowskiej”, in
Rzemiosło Artystyczne. Materiały Sesji Oddziału Warszawskiego Stowarzyszenia Historyków
Sztuki, Warszawa 1996, pp. 85-99.
22 Przyrembel, op. cit., pp. 47-75; Starzewska, Jeżewska, op. cit., pp. 21-22.
23 Przyrembel, op. cit., pp. 75-85; Starzewska, Jeżewska, op. cit., p. 22.
86
mirror works near Dresden. Initially, the mirror works specialised in production
of mirror plates of different sizes, used in looking-glass studies and galleries,
fashionable in the second ąuarter of the eighteenth century.21 At the same time
English style decorative mirrors in looking-glass frames were produced and in
the second half of the forties also French style mirrors. After modernisation
of the glass kiln, sińce 1750 table glass was produced of character and ąuality
as good as that of the table glass from Naliboki.
Anna Radziwiłł essentially influenced her closest family, for example her
sons, as far as economic activity is concerned. In the twenties and thirties,
absorbed with their own political careers and travels, they took no interest in
economy and manufactures. It was only in the forties that the elder son, the
Grand Hetman of the Lithuanian Army Michał Kazimierz (1702-1762),
making use of his mother’s experience, established first a faience manufacture
in Swierzeń (1742)22 and then the next one in Żółkiew (1747).23 The manufacture
in Swierzeń, like the one in Biała, produced mamly tableware and services for
coffee, tea and chocolate, painted with fashionable and popular patterns.
Sporadically, smali figures were also produced and, on special commission,
ceramic sculptures like the “philosophers”’ busts for the library of the Nieśwież
pałace, around 1748. The faience makers from Żółkiew specialised mainly
in tiles, both white and painted, for various types of stoves, like Saxon and
Lithuanian; smali amounts of table ware were also produced. In 1742 in
✓
Pohorel near Swierzeń a water polisher’s shop of semiprecious Stones was built
where, similar to those in Biała and Jankowicze, mostly decorative ware was
produced, later listed in inventories of the Radziwiłłs’ palaces. One of the
biggest commissions of the Pohorel polisher’s shop was a stone altar for the
Jesuit church of the Holy Virgm in Nieśwież, madę around 1753. In 1744 in
Cumań near Ołyka subseąuent manufactures and an iron foundry with a high
scalę melting furnace were located. The craftsmen employed there not only
melted iron out of the rich iron ore lodes but also specialised in casting. Thus,
numerous mentions of mantelpiece plates with Radziwiłłs’ coats-of-arms and,
occasionally, bells and cannons, produced in co-operation of bell-makers.
By the end of the thirties expansion works and modernisation of the
Nieśwież pałace, the main residence of the Nieśwież lords, began. Many
craftsmen, previously related to the Princess’ court, were moved to analogous
studios in Nieśwież. Due to a large scope of works some of the studios, like
the painters’ atelier, were expanded and employed over a dozen specialists of
sorts. It was during that period that the carpenter’s workshop run by the Saxon
20 A staff of eleven craftsmen of different specialities, who helped to establish the glassworks with
but smali participation of unąualified workers.
21 A.J. Kasprzak, “Gabinet i Galeria Zwierciadlana w pałacu w Białej Radziwiłłowskiej”, in
Rzemiosło Artystyczne. Materiały Sesji Oddziału Warszawskiego Stowarzyszenia Historyków
Sztuki, Warszawa 1996, pp. 85-99.
22 Przyrembel, op. cit., pp. 47-75; Starzewska, Jeżewska, op. cit., pp. 21-22.
23 Przyrembel, op. cit., pp. 75-85; Starzewska, Jeżewska, op. cit., p. 22.
86