„Golden Duck” plaquette
The metal plaquette features the Golden Duck, a protagonist of one of the most wellknown Warsaw legends, guardian of treasures hidden in the dungeons of the Ostrogski Castle on Tamka Street in Powiśle, the riverside quarter of the city centre. Henryk Grunwald (1904-1958), the author of the plaquette, was a versatile artist active in the fields of drawing, painting, metalwork, silver-smithing and poetry. In the 1930s, he gained renown for his decorative metalwork. Grunwald created silver, copper and brass jewellery, decorative vessels and architectural details carried out using smithing techniques. He was the designer of decorative metalwork elements that adorned many public edifices of the capital city during that period. Grunwald’s works are characterised by an outstanding awareness of the values of the material, which allowed him to tap into its properties and beauty in order to enhance the artistic value. He did not differentiate between artistic activities from the spheres of fine and applied arts, and therefore regarded small-scale artistic metalwork as a means of expression equal in rank to painting and sculpture.
Henryk Grunwald was a pioneer of artistic jewellery made of inexpensive materials. The artist consistently referred to the experiences of smithing. His simplified geometrical forms were also inspired by drawing and graphic art; they originated from the repertoire of plastic themes present in the European art of the era, national tradition and folk ornaments. Jewellery of his design often incorporated transformed motifs from fables and folk tales, as well as Warsaw legends. His favourite characters by far were the Mermaid, the dragon Basilisk and the Golden Duck.
Henryk Grunwald spent the years of the World War II in Warsaw. He fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising – armed uprising against the German occupier organised by the underground Home Army – in the Old Town area. After the war, the artist became involved in the reconstruction of the capital city; he worked on lattices for the arcades of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and metalwork details for the Council of Ministers Palace, the Belvedere Palace and the National Philharmonic. Grunwald also returned to jewellery design, which was executed by his collaborating engravers Stefan Chmielecki (1911–1984) and Wojciech Jurkowski (1939–2007). In the 1950s, those products were purchased by Cepelia and numerous embassies. The pendants and brooches of Grunwald’s design, akin to the plaquette with the Golden Duck, served as examples of souvenirs of high artistic profile.
Golden Duck plaquette
DESIGN HENRYK GRUNWALD, MADE BY STEFAN CHMIELECKI
WARSAW; 1946–1950
COPPER, DIE-STAMPED, ENGRAVED, PIERCED SILVER (?)
MHW 17656
12,5 × 10,5 × 0,2 CM
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