Objects

The plate comes from a shop run in Warsaw by Zygmunt Karol Allina (? - 1932) with his sons: Karol (1894-?) And Bogusław (1997). The enterprise under the banner of Sztuka Ludowa, functioning in the years 1918-1939, resembled the later Cepelie with its assortment. The Alins ordered handicrafts from folk artists. The first company store was located at the corner of Świętokrzyska and Mazowiecka streets in Warsaw. With time, the Allins opened a point at the Bristol Hotel in Krakowskie Przedmieście. They also started exporting their goods abroad (including to the USA). The end of the family business came with the collapse of the tenement house in which the first store was located. The building collapsed as a result of the explosion of one of the first bombs that were dropped over Warsaw in September 1939.

The plate in the collection of the POLIN Museum was made of earthenware. The object is painted white under glaze and decorated with a colorful floral motif inspired by the embroidery characteristic of the Kashubian region. Among the painted decorations, you can find flowers in the following colors: blue with a yellow interior (tulips), pink with a yellow interior (tulips), pink with three yellow stamens (lilies) and small three and five-leaf flowers in blue and pink (pansies). In addition, geometric patterns consisting of vertical blue lines arranged in a shape resembling a triangle (from the widest - to the bottom, to the narrowest - at the top) have been inscribed in the voids. On the bottom there is the shop's inscription in English (A | Allina | Handpainted | Made in Poland) and the pattern or form number (1033).

Marta Frączkiewicz