I am 4th generation in the US. Our family roots are more or less lost to me at this point.

This belonged to my grandfather, who wasn’t really around to explain much of anything to me about the past or things like this in particular.

It seems to be a coat of arms with old republic crests from various places. Curious about the handwriting on the back.

Hope you find it interesting.

6 comments

  1. kopia z albumu herbów polskich s.wolskiego rok 1900

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    Copy from album of Polish ~~military~~ coat of arms, ***S. Wolskiego***

    year 1900

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    The front says these are kingdoms of poland. (each little region had it’s own. The top left is mine, Cieszyńskie, that’s where i was born and lived for a few years.)

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    Edit thanks to: u/Domena100

  2. I thought it was a tattoo before reading the title silly me

  3. Front:

    Duchies of the Republic of Poland

    Back:

    Copy from the album of Polish coats of arms by S. Wolski. Year 1900.

    Can’t make out what is written at the top, does it say GO. AU?

    The whole thing seems to be anachronistic in the sense that I don’t think there ever was a moment in history when Poland controlled all of these territiories at once. Perhaps the author was focused on a certain artistic vision and not historical accuracy.

    Additionaly the author only included some of the duchies but again I don’t even know which period is this supposed to depict. In 1900 Poland was still partitioned so that’s not it.

    Moreover, there are either spelling errors or some of the names are written in a dialect or old Polish. For example, ”Lignickie” instead of Legnickie, ”Szląsk” instead of Śląsk (I guess it should say Śląskie if the author wanted to be consistent).

    One of the names is wrong – there is a Moldovan coat of arms but the text says ”Wołochy” which I would assume was meant to say Wołoszczyzna – Wallachia. (I googled ”Wołochy” but the only thing I found was a village in Belarus. Perhaps that’s an archaic name for Wallachia or maybe an error).

    Edit:
    I think I found the album mentioned on the back from which the original illustration comes from. It’s on the fifth page:

    https://polona.pl/preview/c78009f6-dca8-4382-951c-250201eb705b

  4. Legnica (“Lignica”), Słupsk, Głogów, Racibórz and Świdnica never belonged to the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, Poland lost these regions way before the first union with Lithuania. They were only annexed back by Poland after WW2.

    So, this thing is completely ahistorical.

  6. The text on the top means “Principalities/Duchies (in Polish it is the same word, but all of those territories are usually translated as Duchies) of the Commonwealth/Republic of Poland”

    Coats of arms seem to be of duchies that were ever part of, or fiefs of the Duchy of Poland or the Kingdom of Poland, including the polish part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, since there is the Duchy of Courland, but not the lithuanian part, since there is no Duchy of Samogitia for example, which I think would be there otherwise

    The coats of arms are mainly of Silesian Duchies (Duchies of Teschen/Cieszyn, Legnica, Siewierz, Racibórz, Głogów, Świdnica, Zator, Oświęcim and the general Duchy of Silesia) that were part of Poland during a period in which Duchy of Poland consisted of many separate Duchies. The Silesian Duchies eventually became a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Duchy of Siewierz was also later bought by bishops of Kraków and was later incorporated into the Commonwealth near the end of its existence

    Duchy of Mazovia also originated during that period of division and later was virtually independent. Later it became a vassal of the restored Kingdom of Poland and after its last Dukes died it became a part of Poland

    Duchy of Pomerania-Stolp(Słupsk) was part of the Duchy of Pomerania that was periodically dependent on Poland

    Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a vassal of both the Crown and Lithuania during the times of P-L Commonwealth until the last partition, but it was also incorporated at some point? I’m not entirely sure, it doesn’t seem to be quite clear

    Duchy of Prussia was a vassal of Poland from its creation in 1525 until 1657, when in exchange for stopping supporting invading Swedish forces dukes of Prussia were granted independence

    Principality of Wallachia was periodically a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland in XVI and XVII centuries

    Appropriately Duchy of Prussia and Principality of Wallachia are described as fiefdoms (these are the ones in the eagle’s claws)

    People here seem to be having different theories what is going on there, but I think what I wrote here is quite accurate

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