In 2015, Maria and Krzysztof Piasecki donated a brass ring found in the village of Chłapowo, on a field near the cemetery, to the Archaeological Reserve in Giecz. The style of the artefact suggests that the ring is an example of the so-called black jewellery, related to the period preceding the outbreak of the January Uprising in 1863. This is an openwork ring (Ø approx. 23 mm), made from loosely twisted triple wire with a soldered die-cut plate in the shape of a cross, heart and anchor. Both the method of production and the raw material suggest that the ring was a cheap mass-produced item, related to a high social demand for patriotic jewellery in the pre-uprising period. The vogue for black jewellery resulted from the events that took place in Warsaw in 1861. After national demonstrations had been bloodily supressed by the tsarist authorities, a national mourning was announced among the Poles, which also covered the areas of the Prussian and Austrian partitions. Wearing black mourning outfits and patriotic jewellery became the original manifestation of national-liberation views. The patriotic symbolism of the Chłapowo ring was based on four themes. The cross, a sign of mourning, referred directly to the Warsaw events of February and April 1861. The anchor expressed a desire for independence and the longing for its regaining. The heart meant love for the homeland and national unity. On the other hand, the tripartite cord forming the ring represented the enslavement of the Poles under the three partitions. An analogous combination of symbols is quite common in pre-uprising jewellery. The ring from Chłapowo thus fits in with a peculiar canon of national symbols shaped between 1861 and 1862 and this is when it was most likely produced.
The article concerns the figure of Franciszek Jaworski (1873–1914), a historian, antiquarian, collector, journalist, and journalist from Lviv. His works on Polish historical rings from 1911–1913 are the first to document these items from the end of the 18th century and the 19th century. Especially the work on rings, written in 1913, had a significant impact on the subsequent literature on Polish jewelry. Its author was the first researcher to perceive the ring as an important historical object, a document of the culture of bygone times, seemingly only a small, meaningless object. The items collected in the work Historical Polish Rings were divided by Jaworski into groups arranged chronologically. The four oldest rings related to the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the remaining 114 were related to people and events of the 19th century (the last of the rings was from 1894). The ring typology introduced by Franciszek Jaworski became important for the subsequent systematization of Polish jewelry. Although it was a group of works accidentally collected by him, it became a basis for the next generations to distinguish a new category of jewelry, known today as “patriotic jewellery”. For this reason, Franciszek Jaworski should be treated as the first historiographer who drew attention to the need for research in this unrecognized field with his study.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy postaci lwowskiego historyka, antykwariusza, kolekcjonera, dziennikarza, publicysty Franciszka Jaworskiego (1873–1914). Jego prace poświęcone polskim pierścieniom historycznym z lat 1911–1913 są pierwszymi, które dokumentują te przedmioty, pochodzące z końca XVIII stulecia i z wieku XIX. Zwłaszcza praca o pierścieniach powstała w 1913 roku wywarła znaczący wpływ na późniejsze piśmiennictwo poświęcone polskiej biżuterii. Jej autor był pierwszym badaczem postrzegającym pierścień jako ważny obiekt historyczny, dokument kultury minionych czasów, na pozór tylko przedmiot drobny, pozbawiony znaczenia. Zabytki zebrane w pracy Pierścienie historyczne polskie podzielił Jaworski na grupy uporządkowane chronologicznie. Cztery najstarsze pierścienie odnosiły się do schyłku Rzeczypospolitej, a pozostałe 114 wiązały się z osobami i wydarzeniami XIX wieku (ostatni z pierścieni pochodził z 1894 roku). Typologia pierścieni wprowadzona przez Franciszka Jaworskiego stała się ważna dla późniejszych systematyzacji polskiej biżuterii. Choć była to grupa dzieł przygodnie przez niego zebranych, stała się dla kolejnych generacji podstawą do wyodrębnienia nowej kategorii biżuterii, znanej dziś jako „biżuteria patriotyczna”. Z tego powodu Franciszka Jaworskiego należy traktować jako pierwszego ich historiografa, który swoim opracowaniem zwrócił uwagę na potrzebę badań na tym nierozpoznanym polu.
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