IWONA DYMARCZYK, APTEKARZ I MAJOLIKI. O MATEUSZU B. GRABOWSKIM I JEGO KRAKOWSKIEJ KOLEKCJI CERAMIKI APTECZNEJ, WYDAWNICTWO KONTEKST, KRAKÓW – POZNAŃ 2015, S. 255, IL. 165

• Authors: Załęska, Wanda

Abstracts

PL

The title of the publication suggests a history of the collection of a pharmacist, a maiolica collector; however, the book contains much more and presents Mateusz Bronisław Grabowski (1904–1976), a pharmacist, a social activist in the community of Polish pharmacists in London after WWII, a collector of contemporary art, a patron of the arts and a donor of that contemporary art and old ceramics to Polish museums. The collection assembled by Mateusz Grabowski in the 1950s–1970s consists of 83 utensils: pharmaceutical jars – albarella, jugs, tins and vases made of faience, maiolica, Delftware and porcelain in European workshops and manufactories. In 1976, he donated it to the Cracow Museum of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The diversity of forms and decorations, the long time span of the exhibits and the multiplicity of places where they were manufactured posed a great challenge for the author of this publication, especially as she is a pharmacist herself. The museum’s catalogue of the collection met the requirements for such a publication, and Iwona Dymarczyk’s pharmaceutical background, especially her knowledge of pharmacopoeia, provided an interesting and in-depth analysis of the function of the utensils labelled with Latin pharmacy inscriptions, the names of drugs to which they were devoted. This interesting interdisciplinary publication, Pharmacist and maiolica, presents a collector and his work based on archival documents, written sources and a catalogue of the collection of pharmaceutical ceramics devised on the basis of the subject’s literature. The collecting and ”patronage” elements of Mateusz Grabowski’s life – founding and running a gallery in London in 1959–75 which mainly promoted contemporary art and which led to magnificent gifts of contemporary art to museums; the National Museum in Warsaw and the Museum of Art in Łódź; as well as his offer of a collection of pharmaceutical utensils to the Cracow Museum of Pharmacy – are only a sample of his many achievements

• Publisher: Krajowy Ośrodek Badań i Dokumentacji Zabytków
• Journal: Muzealnictwo
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 57
• Pages: 95-98

Contributors

author

Załęska, Wanda

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/04641086.1205771