The large compendium titled Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild contains two volumes devoted to Bohemia (1894 and 1896) and one volume devoted to Moravia and Silesia (1897). Chapters on folk culture are accompanied by a plethora of pictures, a significant number of which depict rural residents wearing traditional dress. However, the informative value of illustrations depicting folk costumes from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia as a source for ethnological research is limited. The unbalanced selection of examples from individual regions is problematic. Understandably, a great emphasis was placed on the German ethnic group, but even ethnographic regions inhabited by Czech population are not represented proportionally to the preservation of traditional culture, so the resulting visual perception does not even correspond to the reality in the late nineteenth century. Czech painters were addressed to illustrate two volumes about Bohemia, but the Moravia and Silesia volume was illustrated almost exclusively by artists with ties to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied or taught, and to the imperial court. However, not only Viennese, but even all Czech painters had no direct experience with the folk culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. They worked according to supplied photographs, the availability of which eventually influenced the choice of illustrations. The successful level of both the drawing and painting templates and their xylographic treatments posed a positive aspect. And what is essential - the comparison with the traced model photographs confirms their basically faithful interpretation. Even so, the ethnologist cannot underestimate the critical insight into the documentary value of the illustrations accompanying the admirably monumental work Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, named Kronprinzenwerk after its initiator and partly co-author, Crown Prince Rudolf.
For many years, the attention of specialists has been aimed at
Těšín folk costumes decorated with silver jewellery. They are the result of a gradual diffusion of city jewellers’ products among wealthier countrymen; amateur craftsmen (so called fušeři - dabblers) used to make jewellery for less wealthy people. Jablunkov and Těšín were main centres of this production.
Jewellery was primarily made of silver, but copper, tin, lead and later new materials (German silver) were used as well. The most common methods of making silver jewellery were casting (the oldest technology), extrusion and filigree. There are following types of jewellery: hooks, belts, buttons, chains, necklaces and different brooches. Grotesque, arabesque, auriculated and also zoomorphic (lion, bird, lamb) and anthropomorphic (king David, angel) ornaments prevail on the oldest jewellery. Silver belts became the height of art and craftsmanship of Těšín jewellers’ work. The most extensive and comprehensive collection of Těšín silver folk
costume jewellery is owned by the Museum of Těšínsko in Český
Těšín.