Peruvian collections of Władysław Kluger
Artistic craft products
Tableware items presented during the exhibition are a part of the collection created by the Polish engineer, Władysław Kluger (1849-1884). The collection, which he donated to the Academy of Learning in Kraków in 1876, is today an important part of the collection of the Department of Mediterranean and Ancient American Civilisations Archaeology of the Archaeological Museum in Kraków.
Władysław Kluger collected tableware, textiles, mummies and various products of artistic craftsmanship of peoples living along the Pacific coast. He donated the impressive collection consisting of more than 1000 archaeological and ethnographic objects to the Academy of Learning in Kraków. Only a small part of the collection – 233 items, mainly tableware and textiles – have been preserved in the museum until now. Among them are ceramics of the Moche culture (200 BC – AD 600) – jugs shaped like human figures; tableware of the Chimu and Chancay cultures (1000-1476). Tableware of the Chimu culture were made in moulds shaped like plants, animals, houses or in moulds of anthropomorphic shape. Creators of ceramics of the Chancay culture most frequently painted human figures on their works.
An important place in the Kluger’s collection is taken by cotton, llama or alpaca wool textiles, usually made on a horizontal loom used in ancient Peru. Apart from fabrics, dolls and three-dimensional objects such as houses and trees made from cotton with plant fibre were produced. Textiles and mummies from the collection originate from excavations carried out by Kluger in the necropolis of Ancon.
Script: Krzysztof Babraj, Marek Grosse
Design: Marek Grosse
COME-IN!
See also 12 exhibits within the COME-IN module!