[CICHOWSKI Adolf] WROTNOWSKI Felix- Zbiory starożytności polskich w Paryżu Adolfa Cichowskiego. Paris 1856. in the printing house of L. Martinet on Mignon street, 2.

WROTNOWSKI Feliks] - Collection of Polish antiquities in Paris by Adolf Cichowski. Paris 1856. in the printing house of L. Martinet on Mignon Street, 2.

S. 56. height 23 cm. Book bound in cardboard binding with imitation marbled paper facings (digitally reproduced).
Foxing (strong), soiling of pages. Some cards trimmed, some in original size.

Rare catalog documenting the excellent collection of Polish antiquities held by Adolf Cichowski (1794-1854), officer, participant in the Napoleonic wars, collector and antiquarian, surrounded by Polish memorabilia in his possession.

Estreicher does not note.

Adolf Cichowski (b. 1794, d. October 7, 1854) - participant in the Napoleonic wars, officer.
After leaving military service, an official of the Treasury Commission. He was one of the first members of the Patriotic Society. Arrested in 1822, after his release he was removed from his post and remained under police surveillance. In the November Uprising he did not serve in the military, was appointed chairman of the Public Buildings Commission, and published the "Kurier Polski." After the occupation of Warsaw by the Russian army, he emigrated with his wife Ludwika (née Dupont) to Dresden. In 1834 he was sentenced by Russian authorities to be hanged for participation in the November Uprising. In 1834 his property left in Poland was confiscated, and he settled in exile in Paris a year later. He became an associate of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, taking up the position of director of the female school at the Hotel Lambert. He collected Polish antiquities and national memorabilia, mainly engravings. Among other things, he amassed a collection of some 400 maps and atlases of old Poland, most of which are now in the Czartoryski Library in Cracow. A friend of Chopin, a collection of 20 letters from Chopin to Adolf Cichowski is kept in the National Museum in Warsaw. He was a member of the freemasonry lodge Astrea in 1819

Feliks Wrotnowski (1807-1871) - publicist, cartographer, participant in the Lithuanian expedition of D. A. Chłapowski (1831). After the fall of the uprising he settled in Paris, editor of the "National Journal" (together with W. Plater), later of the "Polish News", a Towiańczyk. In 1854-1860, director of the Polish Library in Paris.

Below is a link to a Youtube video about the portrait of A. Cichowski (item 105 in the auction) and Feliks Wrotnowski's brochure about the collector (item 106 in the auction).