Guild votive offering of the butchers' guild 1909 Dimensions 46 x 32 x 2 cm Brass. In the central part there is a prominent bull's head under the crown, on crossed axes. On the crown the date 1909. From under it flows a ribbon, on which there are names: Wladyslaw Teske - senior journeyman; and on the other side, Franciszek Dabrowski - foreman. A guild votive offering, most likely funded by a journeyman, after he moved to a "higher level" in the hierarchy of the butchers' guild. We date the object based on the date of course, so the time of creation is 1909; the votive probably cast, slightly chiseled. It probably hung on the wall of the guild chamber, or in the house of an elder.
Little is known about the figures themselves, and one must assume that those inscribed below are identical to those in the votive:
Franciszek Dąbrowski ran his butcher store in the 2nd half of the 19th century in Aleksandrów Łódzki - he was probably a guild elder, as perhaps the words "bejzetz majster" should be understood that way?
On the other hand, Wladyslaw Teske, described as a "senior journeyman" (by the way - a rather strange position in the hierarchy of the guild, but in the 19th/20th century anything was possible - perhaps he was a representative of the journeymen to the entire assembly of butchers), appears at the beginning of the 20th century in Zgierz, where he had his butcher's shop/factory.
On the other hand, the finial of the banner only allows us to conclude that we are dealing with a memento of a Christian guild, with privileges granted and confirmed by Polish kings. It was obvious that the Jews had their own guild of butchers, especially in view of kosher requirements.
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