Medal collection
1808-2003 |
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| Biography / History: This collection came mainly from donations, the most significant one consisting of 32 items, donated by the wife of Józef Wittenberg in 1971. Individual medals and smaller collections were donated, among others, by Czeslawa Czajkowska-Twardus, prof. Janusz Zawodny, Alfred Szebel, Bogdan Charlam, and prof. Jerzy Krzyżanowski. Some medals were also offered to the Institute by their designers: Stanisław Wiśniewski, Krystyna Filipska-freyer, Dr H. Klimkiewicz, and Romuald Lech Sieradzki. | | Abstract: The collection comprises of over 180 medals commemorating the most significant episodes in Polish history: the battle at Samosierra in 1808, (the oldest medal); November Uprising, the revolution of 1905; WWI & II, Poland’s recovery of independence, also events from the communist period (PRL) and the Third Republic. More than 20 medals are related to Marshal Józef Piłsudski. This collection also contains medallions and plaques. Among outstanding medallions are those of Wojciech Święcicki (1823-1873) – his series “Polish Monarchs” minted in Warsaw in the workshops of Minter, as well as the beautiful medal of the Polish Senate depicting the Polish eagle from the period of Sigismund the Great, capped by the crown with the letter “S” incorporated in it; this medal had been offered to the Institute by the Speaker of the [Polish] Senate, Jolanta Danielak. Among the plaques, there outstanding works by Józef Aumiller from the interwar period, in particular a large one of Józef Piłsudski. The Institute’s collection also contains several sculptures. In the main hall there is the bust of Józef Piłsudski in copper by Elwira Zachert-Mazurczyk, as well as a full-length statue in bronze by Stanisław Ostrowski (1879-1947), exhibited during the World Exhibition in New York in 1939. The Institute also possesses the casts of Piłsudski’s death mask and hand in gypsum, from 1935 | | Inventory (in Polish): |
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