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DOI Artikel:Mieleszkiewicz, Stefan: Vilnius as a production centre of longcase clocks from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18948#0115
manufactures of the Ogiński family in Słonim or Sokołów Podlaski,44 but they
show a strong formal influence of the Vilnius carpentry.
The clock from the Bernardine church in Vilnius4' is particularly important
as it is possible to link its case to specific carpenters and to datę it precisely.
Stylistic, formal and materiał similarities to the pulpit, stalls, pews, organ
prospect and some of the altars of the Bernardine church4b show that all of
these objects were madę in one carpenter-wood-carver workshop. As the
church furniture was produced in a Bernardine carpenter’s workshop47 it is
probably there that the clock in ąuestion was madę, around 1764-1766.48 It
44 Michał Kleofas Ogiński the Great Treasurer of Lithuania brought artisans, also carpenters, from
Montbeliard to Sokołów; cf. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego, Warszawa 1890, vol. 11,
p. 30; B. Maszkowska, Z dziejów polskiego meblarstwa okresu oświecenia, Wrocław 1956, p. 22,
footnote 28. A carpenter Strasburgier madę various decorations and capitals for the Room of
Goddesses in the Słonim pałace in 1787-88 - Łopaciński, op. cit., item 976. According to the bill
in the Library of the Polish Academy of Science Kr, rkps 5935, ch. 208 these were “postumenty
i festklejdunki”; cf. A. Kietlińska and M. Piwocka, “Michała Kazimierza Ogińskiego gobeliny
z posągami bóstw”, in Tkaniny artystyczne z wieków XVIII i XIX. Materiały z sesji naukowej
w Zamku Królewskim na Wawelu, Kraków, 21 marca 1991, Kraków 1997, p. 107.
45 Now in the National Museum of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lietuvos Nacionałinis Muziejus, inv. no.
IM 3004). Rather large ash case (263 x 58.5 x 32.3 cm) with a cubicoidal trunk inserted in
a convex plinth, crowned with a broken-arch top and a dome-ledge, inłaid with black vein, with
carved rocailles and five vase-shaped pinnacles; English movement with beli musie box, signed:
“Frans Wells London” on the diak
46 Today the confessionals are in the Royal chapel of the Vilnius cathedral, the pews in the Vilnius
church of St. Raphael while the pulpit and the altars remained in the Bernardine church.
47 So called “factory”. The church furniture was completed before September 1766, as is proved
by an entry in the accounts of the Vilnius Bernardine convent for 1764-1766, In Nomine Do?nini
Incipiunt Registra Eleemosynae Expensae Connentus Yilnensis Ord: Min. Obser: Sub Regimine
A.R. Patris Vincenty SaplicaA.D. 1763/Elemosyna expensa in Fabricam Ecclesia Vilne[nsis] ab Anno
Dni 1764 ad Diem 1 Septembris Anni 1766 - “for the designs to his excellency the Architect for
the altars/to Mr Holtz for the pedestal for the same altar - 374/to Mr Walter the carpenter for
making the altar conciptimus -480/ to Jakub the Carpenter for the balustradę in front of the great
altar/ to Mr Fryzer the Wood-Carver for carving the three altars - 2000/ to the same man for the
work by the pulpit - 400/ to Jakub for the pulpit - 1700/ to Gioto the carpenter - 56/ to Gioto
for the great altar - 1480/ to Organ Builder - 4800” (Library of of the Vilmus University,
Manuscript Section, sign. F4-35775/A-2444/; I wish to thank Marcin Zgliński for pointing to
this piece of information).
48 I have based this dating upon several facts. In 1761 and 1767 the Bernardines were given
considerate legacies which could be helpful in financing various works enriching both the church
and the monastery; cf Klasztory bernardyńskie w Polsce w jej granicach historycznych, ed. priest
E. Wyczawski, Kalwaria Zebrzydowicka 1985, the entry on Vilnius writtenby father K. Grudziński
OFM, p. 436. In the above ąuoted accounting book, among many other entries concerning
carpentry and wood-carving in the church and the monastery, in May 1776 there was an entry -
“for a smali wooden clock 36 zlotys” (ch. 44). This entry probably concerns the case of the clock
in ąuestion but prior to this datę there were other longcase eloeks, or at least movements, in the
monastery or the church. This is proved by entries in the same book, with the same diminutives,
no doubt concerning large dimensions of the chronometer: “for strings for the smali clock 1 zloty
10 grosz - Junis 1764, Fixing the smali clock 16 zl - September 1765, for a beli for the smali
clock 8 zl -Julius 1766 and for six bells for smali eloeks and organ 52 zlotys-Julius 1766” (under
expenses ch. 16, 34 and under income ch. 16) The movement itself was madę after the year 1760,
in which Frans Wells started to work.
109
show a strong formal influence of the Vilnius carpentry.
The clock from the Bernardine church in Vilnius4' is particularly important
as it is possible to link its case to specific carpenters and to datę it precisely.
Stylistic, formal and materiał similarities to the pulpit, stalls, pews, organ
prospect and some of the altars of the Bernardine church4b show that all of
these objects were madę in one carpenter-wood-carver workshop. As the
church furniture was produced in a Bernardine carpenter’s workshop47 it is
probably there that the clock in ąuestion was madę, around 1764-1766.48 It
44 Michał Kleofas Ogiński the Great Treasurer of Lithuania brought artisans, also carpenters, from
Montbeliard to Sokołów; cf. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego, Warszawa 1890, vol. 11,
p. 30; B. Maszkowska, Z dziejów polskiego meblarstwa okresu oświecenia, Wrocław 1956, p. 22,
footnote 28. A carpenter Strasburgier madę various decorations and capitals for the Room of
Goddesses in the Słonim pałace in 1787-88 - Łopaciński, op. cit., item 976. According to the bill
in the Library of the Polish Academy of Science Kr, rkps 5935, ch. 208 these were “postumenty
i festklejdunki”; cf. A. Kietlińska and M. Piwocka, “Michała Kazimierza Ogińskiego gobeliny
z posągami bóstw”, in Tkaniny artystyczne z wieków XVIII i XIX. Materiały z sesji naukowej
w Zamku Królewskim na Wawelu, Kraków, 21 marca 1991, Kraków 1997, p. 107.
45 Now in the National Museum of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lietuvos Nacionałinis Muziejus, inv. no.
IM 3004). Rather large ash case (263 x 58.5 x 32.3 cm) with a cubicoidal trunk inserted in
a convex plinth, crowned with a broken-arch top and a dome-ledge, inłaid with black vein, with
carved rocailles and five vase-shaped pinnacles; English movement with beli musie box, signed:
“Frans Wells London” on the diak
46 Today the confessionals are in the Royal chapel of the Vilnius cathedral, the pews in the Vilnius
church of St. Raphael while the pulpit and the altars remained in the Bernardine church.
47 So called “factory”. The church furniture was completed before September 1766, as is proved
by an entry in the accounts of the Vilnius Bernardine convent for 1764-1766, In Nomine Do?nini
Incipiunt Registra Eleemosynae Expensae Connentus Yilnensis Ord: Min. Obser: Sub Regimine
A.R. Patris Vincenty SaplicaA.D. 1763/Elemosyna expensa in Fabricam Ecclesia Vilne[nsis] ab Anno
Dni 1764 ad Diem 1 Septembris Anni 1766 - “for the designs to his excellency the Architect for
the altars/to Mr Holtz for the pedestal for the same altar - 374/to Mr Walter the carpenter for
making the altar conciptimus -480/ to Jakub the Carpenter for the balustradę in front of the great
altar/ to Mr Fryzer the Wood-Carver for carving the three altars - 2000/ to the same man for the
work by the pulpit - 400/ to Jakub for the pulpit - 1700/ to Gioto the carpenter - 56/ to Gioto
for the great altar - 1480/ to Organ Builder - 4800” (Library of of the Vilmus University,
Manuscript Section, sign. F4-35775/A-2444/; I wish to thank Marcin Zgliński for pointing to
this piece of information).
48 I have based this dating upon several facts. In 1761 and 1767 the Bernardines were given
considerate legacies which could be helpful in financing various works enriching both the church
and the monastery; cf Klasztory bernardyńskie w Polsce w jej granicach historycznych, ed. priest
E. Wyczawski, Kalwaria Zebrzydowicka 1985, the entry on Vilnius writtenby father K. Grudziński
OFM, p. 436. In the above ąuoted accounting book, among many other entries concerning
carpentry and wood-carving in the church and the monastery, in May 1776 there was an entry -
“for a smali wooden clock 36 zlotys” (ch. 44). This entry probably concerns the case of the clock
in ąuestion but prior to this datę there were other longcase eloeks, or at least movements, in the
monastery or the church. This is proved by entries in the same book, with the same diminutives,
no doubt concerning large dimensions of the chronometer: “for strings for the smali clock 1 zloty
10 grosz - Junis 1764, Fixing the smali clock 16 zl - September 1765, for a beli for the smali
clock 8 zl -Julius 1766 and for six bells for smali eloeks and organ 52 zlotys-Julius 1766” (under
expenses ch. 16, 34 and under income ch. 16) The movement itself was madę after the year 1760,
in which Frans Wells started to work.
109