Dutch Tiles in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and neighbouring lands

Between the 17th and the 19th centuries, Dutch tiles enjoyed great fame throughout Europe - millions of tiles were imported from the Netherlands to serve as wall decoration. In Holland the use of tiles was mostly practical, whereas in the other European countries Dutch tiles were mostly applied with strictly decorative purposes. They adorned aristocratic palaces, staircases, fireplaces, and churches, sometimes covering walls or even whole interiors, including ceilings. However, it must be emphasised that this trend had nothing to do with a fascination with bourgeois Dutch culture. Blue painted tiles were instead commonly associated with fashionable Chinese and Chinese-inspired objects (chinoiserie) - they were notably used as such in the Trianon de Porcelaine built in Versailles in 1670-1674. Numerous Dutch tiled interiors can still be found in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic - and include examples in South America, North Africa and India. Contemporary Poland remains an undiscovered repository of Dutch tiles. However, it is important to recall that the country’s current borders do not actually correspond to the area of the historic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which over the centuries experienced numerous changes of its borders. The last one, after the Second World War, resulted in a loss of 48% of its territory in the East, followed by the incorporation of formerly German regions (Lower Silesia, Opolian Silesia, East and West Prussia, along with parts of Pomerania). Hence, some of the tiled interiors presented in this volume in the past belonged to the sphere of German culture, rather than of Polish. This book deals with ca. 150 tiled interiors of various kind - both preserved and demolished (the latter registered in the inventories, diaries, guides, photos, prints, drawings, etc., along with locations suggested by archaeological excavations). Also included are walls reconstructed with original tiles or copies, free imitations, and even unrealised projects. Chapter One: Dutch Tiles in the Dutch Republic, Europe and the World discusses the most representative tiled interiors, a necessary context for the use of tiles in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is important to note that Dutch tiles were not only used for interior decoration, but also for adorning facades of buildings as well as furniture (tables, cabinets etc. - with some interesting examples to be found in Polish museum collections). A separate subchapter has been devoted to the issue of tiles perceived as a defining feature of contemporary Dutch cultural identity. Chapter Two: Dutch Tiles in Royal Prussia deals with 71 tiled interiors in Poland in the former province of Royal Prussia (Königlich-Preußen), which includes Gdańsk (Danzig), Elbląg (Elbing), the Vistula River delta region known as Żuławy (Werder der Weichsel), Malbork (Marienburg) and Toruń (Thorn). A unique instance is the city of Gdańsk. Owing to its architecture, which reflects its extensive cultural and trading relationships with the Low Countries, the city came to resemble a Netherlandish city within the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It also served as the gateway city through which Dutch tiles were imported to this part of Central Europe. It is estimated that at least 6 million tiles arrived there in the course of the 17th and 18th century - a phenomenon discussed in the introduction. From archival inventories, drawings and etchings, we know of ca. 25 Dutch-tiled interiors, though the exact number was undoubtedly much larger. With the destruction of the historic centre of Gdańsk at the end of World War II, many of these resplendent rooms were also lost. Today in Gdańsk a mere seven such tiled interiors survive, though only in the form of reconstructions, using historic tiles or modern replacements. The area of Żuławy is particularly fascinating for the study of Dutch tiles in modern-day Poland. Located in the delta of the Vistula River, Żuławy was colonised by Dutch Mennonites starting in the 16th century. These immigrants, specialists in water engineering, transformed their new motherland into a mini-Holland, replete with polders, dykes, and windmills. The beautiful arcade houses (Vorlaubenhäuser) of their descendants were often richly decorated with Dutch tiles. Only two such interiors survive today, albeit strongly modified and damaged. Approximately 30 other examples are described in this chapter. Chapter Three: Dutch Tiles in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth discusses 55 tiled interiors. To mention only a few, the Faience Room in Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, originally the residence of the royal Sobieski family, is decorated with 110 large-scale pictorial tiles representing flower vases (54 of these decorated with Chinese motifs) and 476 smaller single tiles, portraying biblical stories, landscapes, seacreatures, genre scenes, and riders (all dated ca. 1690). In Warsaw there are also two interiors in The Łazienki Palace. In the 1950s, after the destruction of the war, these two interiors were reconstructed, partly using modern replacements. In the palace in Nieborów (outside Warsaw), there is a staircase decorated with ca. 10,000 historic Dutch tiles. Other notable extent locations include the chapel of St. Francis in Pułtusk (ca. 2000 tiles); the interior of a house in the palace compound in Gardzienice (500 tiles, with a peculiar display on the walls); the Fontana Room in the so-called "House Under The Sign of the Pear" in Kraków (decorated with 1056 Dutch tiles). The most complex Dutch tile decoration, estimated at ca. 150,000 tiles - a quantity unmatched anywhere else in Europe - once adorned the interiors of the castle in Wiśniowiec (now Вишнівець, Ukraine). Chapter Four: Dutch Tiles in the East Prussia (Ostpreußen) deals with 16 monuments from this former German province, including 20th century imitations and inspirations (e.g. stove tiles). None of the impressive palace interiors mentioned in this chapter survive. Chapter Five: Dutch Tiles in Silesia and Western Pomerania deals with 9 interiors from the former German Schlesien and Vorpommern, areas incorporated into Poland after World War II. The most notable examples include 4 interiors. The Beyersdorf Room in the former Royal Palace in Wrocław (Breslau) is decorated with 2139 eighteenth-century tiles from various Dutch and Frisian workshops. Originally, the interior was part of a rich patrician house in Blücherplatz, from where it was moved to its present location in 1898. The former palace of an affluent owner of a linen mill in Pakoszów (Wernersdorf) - now a luxury hotel - houses a room adorned with ca. 1000 tiles. In Krzyżowice (Schlanz), in a palace of the Eulenburg family (now a school building) there are two especially interesting historical interiors: a hall and a former dining-room. In Większyce (Wiegeschütz), a basement kitchen of a palace from 1871 includes tiles from the workshop of Jan van Hulst (Harlingen, ca. 1890). The kitchen interior from Większyce serves as a perfect example of the historic nineteenth-century revival of interest in Dutch tiles all over Europe, especially in Germany. The former library of the palace in Mosty (Speck) in Pomerania (with tiles from Makkum, Tichelaar’s workshop, ca. 1900) is another case. It is also worth mentioning that a factory in Nieborów produced numerous Dutch-like tiles and delftware at the end of the nineteenth century. Chapter Six: Dutch Tiles in the Polish Museums deals with collections that can found in 29 Polish museums (including their branches), with the largest and most important collections found in the National Museum in Gdańsk, the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg, and the District Museums in Toruń and Lublin. The National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław also boast some rare pieces. In Conclusion this study seeks to explain the unprecedented popularity of Dutch tiles in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. First, Poland in this period included a considerable group of wealthy clients following the latest fashions in interior decoration: namely, the powerful aristocratic families that owned dozens of towns and hundreds of villages (the latter inhabited by the enslaved peasants). Second, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch Republic imported ca. 120 thousand tons of grain per year from the Polish Commonwealth. Ships sailing from the Dutch Republic to the ports of Gdańsk and Elbląg had to carry ballast on their way - and both bricks and tiles served this purpose. It is also important to note that the material presented here is only the proverbial tip of an iceberg: therefore, significant future research remains to be done. The present volume contains 207 illustrations. Many of the historical photos and sketches included are published here for the first time.

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