Tytuł pozycji:
Projekty pieczęci Towarzystwa Opieki nad Zabytkami Przeszłości
Among the partly preserved records o f the Society for Protection
o f Historical Monuments there are to be found five designs of
an Inventory Seal o f the art collection at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
The designs, dating from 1916, are the work of W. Żyliński,
a rather unknown architect. The author of the report does not
plunge into a detailed description o f the said projects, his attention
being focussed on their symbolic meaning which reflected the then
political situation o f the Polish nation, its mood and striving for
the recovery o f independence. In four designs the date 1915 had
been inserted. It was meant to memorize the moment of the Society
— a Polish institution set up in the Russian sector o f parti
tioned Poland, 1906, upon the initiative of the Society'— having
taken over the care o f the Royal Castle in Warsaw after 85 years
o f the country’s servitude. The key-note of two designs is the
crown o f King Sigismund III, bearing the inscription: „The Royal
Castle” to remind it was during his reign that the Warsaw Castle
became the residence o f the King o f Poland. In one of the projects
of the seal there is an image o f a white eagle — referring to that
being Poland’s emblem in the times of King Stanisław August
Poniatowski, in another one, a bi-partite shield with the white
eagle of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and the arms of Lithuania — to
remind the idea of the Commonwealth o f Two Nations which
survived throughout the period o f partitions. The only design of
the Society’s seal put into effect represents a stylized fourleaf
clover inscribed into a circle and with the Society’s initials in its
arms and centre. It was that seal that was used for stamping
archival records o f the Society for Protection of Historical Monuments.