Kolekcja | 25.09.2015 This puzzling decorative object is, at first glance, an exceptionally incohesive whole. Inside a lavish setting in gilt bronze and porcelain flowers the designer placed a rather shoddily executed and curious container made of inferior material. Its hourglass form with an opening at the top and a spout brings to mind an old laboratory or medical practices. Intuition has not failed us - this glass vessel is regarded as a popular device used in the eighteenth century for obtaining breast milk after birth.
Apparently, it was later enclosed for sentimental reasons in an non-functional interlace pattern of decorative branches. Quite probably, two such souvenirs, displayed in 1832 in the central part of the palace, were described as Glass Jars Set in Bronze 2. It is just as likely that they commemorated the birth of the daughters of Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska – Aleksandra, the future owner of Wilanów, born between 1758 or 1760, or one of her sisters: Izabela (born in 1755), Konstancja (born in 1761) or Julia (born in 1767).
Barbara Szelegejd