Przezdziecki Aleksander, Rastawiecki Edward. Patterns of Medieval and Renaissance Art to the End of the 18th Century in Old Poland. Published by... Series I. Warsaw and Paris 1853-1855. chromolithographic establishment of M. Fajans. Printing house of Jozef Unger, frontispiece (chromolithography), pages of text [127], plates of figures 40 (in place of 47, chromolithographs by Maximilian Fajans); plates of figures 4 (black and white lithographs), 28 cm. Period binding half leather with gilt, edges of pages marbled, front stapled cover preserved.
Monumental publication edited by Aleksander Przezdziecki and Edward Rastawiecki, presenting selected monuments of Polish art from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. The work, published in notebooks, was one of the largest and most costly publishing ventures on the Polish market in the 19th century.
The text is simultaneously in Polish and French. The work is embellished with chromolithographs (by Henryk Walter, among others) made according to drawings by W. Gerson, B. Podczaszyński, L. Łepkowski, K. Balicki, J. Wojnarowski, J.A. Drewaczyński, L. Dembowski, Wł. Łuszczkiewicz). The first series describes, among others: the Picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Chalice of St. Adalbert in Trzemeszno, the Relic of the Kujawy Cathedral, the Tomb of Boleslaw the Bold in Ossyach, Portraits of St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaw, a pearl chasuble in Czestochowa, King Alexander's enamel plate, Queen Bona's jewel box, Jewels after Sigismund I, a binding from a book by Sigismund Augustus, an ebony altarpiece in the Czestochowa treasury, Hetman's rolls; Kmita's chasuble with the martyrdom of St. Stanislaw, a scabbard from Hetman Zolkiewski's saber.
State of preservation: abrasions and stains of the binding, 7 chromolithographs and 4 pages of text missing, engravings and pages with text rearranged by the bookbinder, slight dirt and characteristic yellowing on the pages in places.
Lit. by A. Banach, Polish illustrated book 1800-1900, item 47.
