DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23631#0077
such blessings of civilization as the steam engine. The British were first to introduce the cooperative
system in craftsmanship and to organize industrial schools and arts and crafts museums. The most important
figure in this movement was William Morris (1834—96), founder oi model workshops in which furniture,
rugs and carpets, wallpaper, stained glass, tiles and various other ceramic objects, as well as bookbindings
were made. Influenced by Ruskin, at first Morris drew inspiration from medieval styles, Gothic in particular;
subsequently he evolved his own simple style in which he gave its due to the properties and qualities
specific to each material. The style of Morris' products exerted an influence on the rest of Europe through
international exhibitions, professional publications and personal contacts. Morris himself owed much to
theories advanced by the German architect Gottfried Semper (1803 — 79), who after the revolution of
1 848 fled Germany and went first to Paris and then to London where he lived between 18 51 and 1855.
He favoured historical styles in architecture, prefering the Renaissance to the Gothic, and formulated
the principle of the primary importance of properties peculiar to any given material.
The great London Exhibition of 18 51, for which the Crystal Palace, an edifice of steel and glass,
was specially built, had great impact on the future evolution of artistic crafts. Some of its exhibits were
transferred to the South Kensington Museum, renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum after its royal
sponsors, which was the first museum of applied art in the world. The British example was followed
by Austria where in 1863 the Oesterreichisches Museum fur Kunst und Industrie was opened in Vienna
together with a school of art, the Kunstgewerbeschule. In Germany, the Verein fur Verbesserung der
Kiinste helped to establish the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, which was a model for
similar institutions in Nuremberg, Munich and other German cities. Thus alongside guilds and factories,
a 'third force' emerged: trained, qualified graduates of art schools on equal rights with painters, sculptors
and graphic artists. In Poland, the first such institution was the Museum of Technology and Industry
opene'd in Cracow in 1868, thanks to Adrian Baraniecki, who as a political emigre in London came under
the influence of Morris and Semper. Two years earlier, plans were made to establish a Museum of Industry
and Agriculture in Warsaw but these materialized only in 1875. About the same time a Museum of
Industry was opened in Lvov.
In conformity with the method adopted thus far, we shall begin the review of Polish craftsmanship
in the 19th century from fashions in dress and attire.
Following the partitions of Poland, the traditional gentry attire yielded to foreign, mostly French and
English fashions: dress coats, frock-coats, vaistcoats, long or knee-length trousers, breeches, and long
riding boots. However, that abandonment of the national costume was not a permanent process. In
the first decades of the 19th century, the older generations, born and bred in independent Poland, continued
to wear the kontush. Soon, the national costume became identified with the idea of struggle for national
independence. In 1809, a decree was issued in the Duchy of Warsaw ruling what type of kontush and
full-dress uniform were to be obligatorily worn at audiences and all official occasions. The type of national
costume chosen was that worn in the Cracow region in circa 1780: a kontush of dark blue cloth with
plain crimson collar and sleeve lining and a white zhupan, its bosses engraved with the arms of the Duchy
of Warsaw. The kontush, zhupan, Shick sash and karabela sabre were worn from the middle of the
1 8th century and throughout the 19th by the mayors and members of the municipal council of Cracow,
Vilna, Lvov and Warsaw; later, this privilege was extended to all members of the urban patriciate. As
far as the privilege of wearing the national costume is concerned, things were different in the different
partition zones. In the Russian-ruled part of Poland, Polish national dress was strictly forbidden following
the suppression of the November Insurrection in 1831, an injunction which was even more severely
enforced after the January Insurrection in 1863. In 1861 in the Austrian zone the Emperor Francis
Joseph I granted the citizens of Cracow the right to wear the karabela sabre, but only with 'full national
dress' composed of kontush and zhupan; four years later, this right was extended to the citizens of Lvov.
Members of the aristocracy continued wearing the national dress, particularly at patriotic ceremonies and
social and family occasions. Gradually, however, tailors lost their skills in making these costumes, which
were sometimes ordered in Vienna or Paris, the customers leaving strict instructions regarding the cut,
or preferably an old costume as model. In the second half of the 19th century the national costume
acquired some features which really did not belong to it. It was worn, for example, with huge fur caps,
popular in Muscovy in the early 1 7th century, adorned with aigrettes. The kontush became shorter, in
the Circassian style, and the baggy Cossack trousers were worn with long, red or yellow boots. The art
of properly tying the sash was almost completely forgotten. The former high quality materials imported
system in craftsmanship and to organize industrial schools and arts and crafts museums. The most important
figure in this movement was William Morris (1834—96), founder oi model workshops in which furniture,
rugs and carpets, wallpaper, stained glass, tiles and various other ceramic objects, as well as bookbindings
were made. Influenced by Ruskin, at first Morris drew inspiration from medieval styles, Gothic in particular;
subsequently he evolved his own simple style in which he gave its due to the properties and qualities
specific to each material. The style of Morris' products exerted an influence on the rest of Europe through
international exhibitions, professional publications and personal contacts. Morris himself owed much to
theories advanced by the German architect Gottfried Semper (1803 — 79), who after the revolution of
1 848 fled Germany and went first to Paris and then to London where he lived between 18 51 and 1855.
He favoured historical styles in architecture, prefering the Renaissance to the Gothic, and formulated
the principle of the primary importance of properties peculiar to any given material.
The great London Exhibition of 18 51, for which the Crystal Palace, an edifice of steel and glass,
was specially built, had great impact on the future evolution of artistic crafts. Some of its exhibits were
transferred to the South Kensington Museum, renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum after its royal
sponsors, which was the first museum of applied art in the world. The British example was followed
by Austria where in 1863 the Oesterreichisches Museum fur Kunst und Industrie was opened in Vienna
together with a school of art, the Kunstgewerbeschule. In Germany, the Verein fur Verbesserung der
Kiinste helped to establish the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, which was a model for
similar institutions in Nuremberg, Munich and other German cities. Thus alongside guilds and factories,
a 'third force' emerged: trained, qualified graduates of art schools on equal rights with painters, sculptors
and graphic artists. In Poland, the first such institution was the Museum of Technology and Industry
opene'd in Cracow in 1868, thanks to Adrian Baraniecki, who as a political emigre in London came under
the influence of Morris and Semper. Two years earlier, plans were made to establish a Museum of Industry
and Agriculture in Warsaw but these materialized only in 1875. About the same time a Museum of
Industry was opened in Lvov.
In conformity with the method adopted thus far, we shall begin the review of Polish craftsmanship
in the 19th century from fashions in dress and attire.
Following the partitions of Poland, the traditional gentry attire yielded to foreign, mostly French and
English fashions: dress coats, frock-coats, vaistcoats, long or knee-length trousers, breeches, and long
riding boots. However, that abandonment of the national costume was not a permanent process. In
the first decades of the 19th century, the older generations, born and bred in independent Poland, continued
to wear the kontush. Soon, the national costume became identified with the idea of struggle for national
independence. In 1809, a decree was issued in the Duchy of Warsaw ruling what type of kontush and
full-dress uniform were to be obligatorily worn at audiences and all official occasions. The type of national
costume chosen was that worn in the Cracow region in circa 1780: a kontush of dark blue cloth with
plain crimson collar and sleeve lining and a white zhupan, its bosses engraved with the arms of the Duchy
of Warsaw. The kontush, zhupan, Shick sash and karabela sabre were worn from the middle of the
1 8th century and throughout the 19th by the mayors and members of the municipal council of Cracow,
Vilna, Lvov and Warsaw; later, this privilege was extended to all members of the urban patriciate. As
far as the privilege of wearing the national costume is concerned, things were different in the different
partition zones. In the Russian-ruled part of Poland, Polish national dress was strictly forbidden following
the suppression of the November Insurrection in 1831, an injunction which was even more severely
enforced after the January Insurrection in 1863. In 1861 in the Austrian zone the Emperor Francis
Joseph I granted the citizens of Cracow the right to wear the karabela sabre, but only with 'full national
dress' composed of kontush and zhupan; four years later, this right was extended to the citizens of Lvov.
Members of the aristocracy continued wearing the national dress, particularly at patriotic ceremonies and
social and family occasions. Gradually, however, tailors lost their skills in making these costumes, which
were sometimes ordered in Vienna or Paris, the customers leaving strict instructions regarding the cut,
or preferably an old costume as model. In the second half of the 19th century the national costume
acquired some features which really did not belong to it. It was worn, for example, with huge fur caps,
popular in Muscovy in the early 1 7th century, adorned with aigrettes. The kontush became shorter, in
the Circassian style, and the baggy Cossack trousers were worn with long, red or yellow boots. The art
of properly tying the sash was almost completely forgotten. The former high quality materials imported