Jardinière

The jardinière was made in the maiolica manufacture in Nieborów. The manufacture, named “Artistic Faience and Stove Tile Factory” was founded by Prince Michał Piotr Radziwiłł in 1881 on the property of his residence. The factory director was Stanisław Thiele, an experienced ceramics artist, who had previously worked in a faience factory in Nevers, France. The manufacture produced various objects of decorative and utilitarian nature: vases, jugs, cache-pôt planters, jardinières, wall-hanging plates, tableware sets, toiletries, hanging lamps, wall tiles, and stove tiles. These eclectic ceramics fit in the historicising tendencies in European ceramics of the second half of the 19th century. The forms and decorations were modelled on the Italian and French maiolica and Dutch faience products. The old stylistic forms were often combined with painted Polish-themed decorations. This included domestic landscapes, views of famous towns, illustrations of Polish legends, images of kings and national heroes. The period of the manufacture’s prosperity lasted until 1886, the collapse of production occurred around 1889. In the collection of the Łańcut Museum-Castle there is a set of eleven decorative maiolica pieces: vases, jardinières, and cache-pôt planters (B. Trojnar, Majokika w zbiorach Muzeum-Zamku w Łańcucie. Katalog, Łańcut 1988). Most of them come from 1882–1886 and are signed with the bound monogram MPR (Michał Piotr Radziwiłł) under a ducal mitre, and sometimes the initials of the decorator painter. The above jardinière is rectangular with a characteristic triangular chamfered edge, on four baluster-shaped legs. It is decorated with architectural-landscape motifs, painted in dark green on a white-blue background. On the shorter side walls is the former castle and Church of St James in Sandomierz, with the inscription Sandomierz at the bottom. On the longer side wall – ruins of the castle in Czorsztyn, the inscription Chęciny is erroneous. On the opposite side is a view of a church with buildings against a mountain background, with the inscription Krościenko. The jardinière is the only one from the set of eleven maiolica pieces from Nieborów gathered in the castle in Łańcut that comes from the collection of the Potocki family, the former owners of the Łańcut castle. Barbara Trojnar