The Museum of Ceramics is housed in a building that, before the war, contained the collections of the City Museum. The pre-war Museum held extensive collections illustrating the history and the spiritual and material culture of the Bolesławiec region. The exhibition was made more appealing by its location in an old bastion, built in 1479/80, where there were seven exhibition rooms. Tickets cost 1 or 2 marks, depending on the length of the visit.
Visitors encountered the first exhibits already on the staircase, which was decorated with paintings, maps, old weapons and an eighteenth-century clock. In 1909, the Great Pot of master Joppe was moved to the Museum; unfortunately, it was destroyed in 1945. An interesting historic object was a clock purchased in Poland and made between 1781 and 1797 by master carpenter Hermann Jacob. He decorated his work with moving scenes from the Stations of the Cross. Among the paintings displayed in the individual rooms, the following deserve mention: copies of a painting by Brtholomeus Strobel depicting Martin Opitz; two other paintings by Max Hoehne, a respected German painter; copies of Gustaw Freitag’s painting “Die Kinder Bunzlaus” (the original is in Munich), whose subject was the retreat of soldiers after the Battle of Bautzen (22 May 1813); and portraits of Frederick William IV and Goethe.
The Museum’s collections included many valuable documents of unique significance: autographs by Martin Opitz (1597–1639), Andreas Tscheming (1611–1659), and rector Salomon Gessner (1559–1605); six documents from 1433–1452; and 20 documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The other rooms had a different design. On the upper floor there was a “peasant room,” furnished to resemble a typical peasant cottage. The furniture from 1831 was donated by Anna Zuzanna Pohl of Gierałtów. The room’s charm was enhanced by a four-poster bed, a table bearing an image of a miller’s wife from 1789, a cradle from 1784, and a complete set of vessels, spoons, plates and glasses.
Most of the Museum’s space was devoted to ceramics. The oldest exhibits were two Roman-origin pipes from Bavaria, approximately 200 vessels found in Slavic hillforts in the Bolesławiec area, and two Bolesławiec pots from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The rest of the ceramic collection corresponds to the current exhibits. Among the oldest exhibits were hatchets, spearheads, urns and bones from archaeological sites in Bolesławiec, Golnie, Ołdrzychów and Warta.
It is difficult to list all the historic objects from the pre-war collections. The more distinctive items included cloth depicting the eclipse of the Sun on 7 June 1761; pewter bowls made by Bolesławiec master Józef Bendler (1813–1876); a 50-centimetre model of the Kutuzov monument; a model of the training ship “Albatros”; a cast of a bell from Ławszowa dated 1773; a gold scale; a plaque bearing the inscription “Bolesławiec Forestry”; a chest from 1675; a woman’s bust from 1680; and copper and bronze vessels. Unfortunately, the Museum had no silver, gold or other expensive items. This does not change the fact that people still speak of the “treasures” held in the collections of the Bolesławiec museum.
From the editorial team:
There is a chance to revive the City Museum in the former Kutuzov Museum building. We appeal to owners of antiques, memorabilia, documents and other items connected with the history of the city—even its more recent history—to contact the Museum of Ceramics, TMB or the editorial office of “Głos”.