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The historical
collections include a wide range of items that document the arts, local
organisations,
farming, handicrafts, mass production and above all the daily lives of the
inhabitants of
Central Bohemia, rather than key historical and political events.
The majority of
items come from the 19th century and the first half of the 20th
century,
although the collections also include older items such as articles
from guilds, military
memorabilia and arts and crafts. The collection of
postcards is one of the museum’s
largest, with c.60 000 items from
practically all genres, and for topography it is an
invaluable aid in the
study of changes that have taken place in towns and villages during
the
modern era. The textiles collection is similarly extensive, covering the
development of
urban fashion and interior design from the late 19th
to the mid-20th century. Also
interesting are the
collections of coins, small religious prints, furniture and a large number
of individual
curios.
The historical
collections include the art collection featuring artists whose life and work
is
associated with Roztoky, especially the painter and illustrator Zdenka
Braunerová and the
sculptor Hedvika Zaorálková. The museum acquired part of
both artists’ estates. The
Zdenka Braunerová collection includes paintings,
prints, book designs, painted glass,
sketchbooks, copper plates for
individual prints and part of her correspondence. The
collection also
features the work of her contemporaries such as František Kobliha and Jan
Konůpek. In the mid-1970s the collections were extended to include Baroque
wood
carvings that are among the oldest artworks here, together with
paintings from the 17th
and 18th centuries. The museum
acquired its largest group of works in 1992 when the
painter Miloš Malina
(1904 – 1991) bequeathed his entire art collection and the other
collections
he had assembled during his lifetime (with over 17 000 items, including a
collection of approximately 40 000 postcards) to the museum. In his
decorative arts
collection, with around 3 000 items, there were important
groups of pewter, ceramics,
glass and furniture. Bequests from other artists
and collectors in the region have brought
remarkable collections to the
museum. One of the oldest and most important is a
collection of prints and
ex-libris, with a group of ex-libris from the time of the French
Revolution.
There are also a number of works by other artists, including Ludmila
Jiřincová
and Max Pirner. Views of castles, chateaux and towns in Central
Bohemia, capturing their
ppearance in the 19th century, also
have great significance for the region.
The historical and
art history collections, with a library and a collection of documents and
photographs, have
over 130 000 items.
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