Would you like to experience an encounter with true masterpieces? A visit to the Goldsmithing Gallery promises a feast for the eyes and will astonish you with the remarkable skill of the masters active in Gdańsk, the foremost goldsmithing centre in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The most striking part of the collection consists of luxurious Baroque vessels: goblets, tankards and mugs, testifying to the refined tastes of the local patriciate and its fondness for display. Among them are objects of exceptional form, including a goblet whose bowl is shaped like a bunch of grapes. The famous Gdańsk tankards on show, whose bodies are decorated with hammered silver genre scenes or scenes drawn from the Bible and ancient history, bear witness to piety as well as to the erudition of the Gdańsk patriciate (including tankards depicting the Crossing of the Israelites through the Red Sea, the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, and the battle of Issus between Alexander the Great and the Persian king Darius).
Property of former city guilds and corporations were the wilkomy, ceremonial welcome cups (including those of Gdańsk millers and master-mason journeymen), used when a new member was admitted to the guild. Among them stands out the wilkom of the Vistula skippers, an elaborate work by Johann Jöde from 1727, with a rich iconographic programme related to navigation on the Vistula.
An important part of the collection consists of Catholic and Protestant liturgical vessels. A unique object is a Jewish etrog box, used in rituals associated with the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
Gdańsk goldsmithing of the 18th century is represented by table and toilet silverware, which could not be missing from wealthy burghers' homes. Among them are teapots, coffee pots, sugar bowls, as well as toilet articles: a mirror in a silver frame, a soap box, pots for beauty preparations, and a set of small toilet implements in an intricately decorated case.
Today few people know what the now-vanished pewterer's craft once involved. A visit to the Pewter Gallery is an opportunity to delve into the world of old objects cast by pewterers, which were indispensable in burghers' homes: platters, water and wine jugs, cups, tankards and spoons. Chamber pots, measures and lavatories, that is, washbasins, were also essential in daily life. The discreet charm of pewter wares with massive, simple forms and smooth, polished surfaces is close to contemporary aesthetic sensibility.
Besides utilitarian objects, the rich museum collection preserves rare examples of decorative wares, including small plates engraved with floral motifs and genre scenes, which were arranged in rows on shelves in the representative vestibules of Gdańsk. The Pewter Gallery also displays church furnishings: characteristic Gdańsk candlesticks and altar vases, a crucifix, a monstrance, as well as Protestant liturgical items: a chalice and a jug for the Lord's Supper. One of the most striking objects is a seventeenth-century baptismal basin decorated with engraved scenes and biblical quotations.
The exhibition also presents teapots, coffee pots and tea caddies characteristic of the 18th century, as well as vessels for serving soups and ragouts: tureens and terrines, which appeared as a result of the fashion for new drinks and dishes.
Most of the objects in the collection come from Pomerania and Gdańsk, which in the early modern period was the most important centre of pewtering in the Commonwealth.
The ceramics exhibition presents faience, stoneware and porcelain made between the 16th and 19th centuries, and before the entrance to the display, reconstructed stoves from Gdańsk tenement houses and Dutch tiles. This remarkably diverse and interesting collection largely continues the former ceramics collection of the Muzeum Miejskie, whose main purpose was to gather ceramics purchased and used in Gdańsk homes.
One of the most important and most numerous groups is the collection of Delft faience,…
Craft Gallery
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