Album of August Potocki

Sztambuch is a word derived from German to describe a collection of pages to be filled with annotations and drawings by assorted persons who thus expressed their sympathy for the owner, signed their names for memory’s sake or wished to made a joke. Such books were extremely popular among the students of early modern Europe. When schooldays were nearing their end, such albums constituted a sui generis diary in which school friends left a kind word or a pleasing drawing. The album belonging to August Potocki, the landlord of Wilanów in 1845–1867, originates from his youth. The title page features the Pilawa family coat of arms, drawn by Anna née Tyszkiewicz, the mother of the ten years-old owner. Inside, alongside casual sketches, we come across genuine curios, including a signature of most probably Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, a friend of the family and a frequent guest at Wilanów: a grotesque scene of taming a horse is signed in the right lower corner with the initials JUN.