Cast-Iron Cauldron Over the Hearth
Inventory No. KW 2758, EI/1666
Dimensions: height 30 cm, diameter 33 cm

Despite the orders issued by the Austrian authorities to construct fire-resistant chimneys, in force since the mid-19^th century, most cottages in the villages in the Carpathian area were chimneyless. In the ‘Fire Act for Rural Communes’ (‘Ustawa ogniowa dla gmin wiejskich’) of 18 July 1768 (published again in 1856), communes and manor houses were encouraged to ‘burn lime and to build brickyards’ providing material necessary for erecting fire-resistant chimneys, mandatory in newly constructed residential buildings and in re-built houses. Knowing that ‘the greatest danger of fire comes from neglecting chimneys’, authorities were ordered ‘to provide all houses with chimneys even with the use of force.’ The Act forbade chimneys made of wood, but due to the lack of bricks, chimneys made of ‘mud or braiding, inside and outside properly lined with clay’ were allowed (a ‘mud chimney’ can be seen in the Pogórze cottage from Lipnica Wielka, transferred to the Sącz museum). Rural residents were also instructed to exercise utmost care when dealing with fire. The Act features such remarks as: ‘Nobody should smoke tobacco in places that can easily catch fire, even if the pipe is provided with a lid’, or instructions: ‘Farmers should tell their wives, daughters and servants to cook the lard carefully and if it catches fire not to pour water over it, but to stifle the flames by covering the pot.’ Smoke in the cabins was eliminated on a common basis only after WWI. It happened that stoves without chimneys functioned even until the 1960s. In chimneyless cabins, the stove occupied almost one-fourth of the premises. It was usually set in the corner of the kitchen, by the wall on the side of the hallway or the other chamber, in order to offer heat to it. It was made of stone bonded together with clay. It comprised a lower bulky part (Polish: nalepa) and a narrower section of the bread stove placed on it, with spaces for several – and in more affluent families, even several dozen – loaves of bread. In poorer huts, there was no bread oven as there was only enough space for the nalepa and the heating part. Hollows in the lower part of the stove were used to dry fuel; chickens were sometimes kept there. Fire for the preparation of meals was kindled directly on the nalepa. A large cast-iron or copper cauldron, suspended directly over the hearth, played an important role in a chimney-less cabin. Water was heated in it; at the same time, it served as fire protection. It smothered the sparks on its bottom; additionally, the steam over the cauldron also dampened the prospect of fire. Clay pots were used for cooking; they were placed on ‘dynarki’ also known as ‘drajfusy’, cast-iron stands on three legs made by rural blacksmiths, often in decorative forms. Fractured clay pots were fixed with a wire. A wire net was also used to bind new vessels. This was the task of itinerant Ruthenian tinkers from Biała Woda in the Pieniny Mountains, or Slovaks from villages on the southern part of the Carpathian mountains. Along with clay pots, cast-iron pots and cauldrons, often on three legs, were used in rural kitchens. These were the so-called ‘żeleźniaki’ or, alternately, ‘spiżoki’. Elongated ‘ryneczki’ with a long handle were used to melt lard. Since the 1930s, housewives used enamel pots more and more willingly; they were considered elegant and modern. The smoke from the hearth would spread around the hut and form a thick layer below the ceiling. When atmospheric pressure was low or when it was windy, it billowed everywhere. It would travel through the door to the hallway, and to the attic through a ‘woźnica’ (in Pogórze, it is also known as a ‘woźniarka’). It was an opening cut out in the ceiling and covered with a wooden flap. It had to be made at a distance from the oven, so that the sparks would not set the roof on fire. From the attic, the smoke got outside through the roof via a special vent. In the Lemko region in the vicinity of Sącz, the vent’s opening at the top of the roof was sometimes covered with a basket made of shingles. The ceiling and the upper part of the walls were always covered with a thick layer of soot, so they were never whitewashed. Only the lower parts of the walls and the stove were covered with grey river clay or lime. In chimney-less huts, ‘polenia’ were assembled at the ceiling: these were two parallel beams used to dry the fuel wood. They were also used to smoke cheese, sausages and bacon; linen or wood for shingles was also dried there.

Kitchen Shelf
Inventory No. MNS KW 15105 EI/1638
Material: wood
Dimensions: height: 86 cm, width: 28 cm, length: 79 cm
Place of origin: Gródek (Nowy Sącz Poviat, Małopolska Province) (powiat nowosądecki, woj. małopolskie)

Shelves, most often placed on the wall in the vicinity of a kitchen stove, were used to store tableware, food and minor household appliances. The shelf in a cottage from Niecew has edges cut out in a decorative fashion, and holds faïence cups, a clay pot with a single handle, glass jars covered with pieces of linen where medications were kept, and canvas bags containing dry goods. At the end of the shelf is a characteristic wooden ladder, the so-called ‘korabek’, which resembles dish-drying racks used in modern kitchens. The wooden slat of the ‘korabek’ has small openings which could be used to hold spoons and whisks, and in the cottage in the museum, large, white bowls and a sizeable clay colander sit on such a rack. Although decorative, the shelf and rack were not the most representative piece of furniture in rural interiors. A chest of drawers was definitely one of the most conspicuous pieces of furniture used to store kitchen utensils. Appearing in folk furniture making in the middle of the 19^th century and typical of stylish Medieval and Renaissance furniture, it had two sections and comprised a deeper base and a narrower upper section. In the Sącz region, such chests were encountered in households of affluent farmers at the beginning of the 20^th century, an attested to the social and material status of their owners.

Spoon Rack
Inventory No. EI/274
Dimensions: height 15 cm, length 21.5 cm, width 13 cm, board thickness: 8 mm
Place of origin: Gostwica, Podegrodzie Commune, Nowy Sącz Poviat (gmina Podegrodzie, powiat nowosądecki)

Wooden spoons used for daily meals, smaller and bigger whisks, ladles, and other utensils... All of this had to be stored somewhere. A spoon rack was used for this purpose, placed on the wall in the vicinity of a kitchen stove. In the Niecew cottage, the spoon rack has the form of a wooden, semi-circular plank with nine oval openings of a diameter of approx. 3 cm, wherein rested the aforementioned items. The plank is attached perpendicularly to a simple wooden handle. In the centre of the handle is a small hole, used to hang the rack on the wall. The spoon rack from the hut in Niecew is an example of a simple household item from the past. However, spoon racks, apart from their utilitarian function, also satisfied aesthetic and decorative needs. Many of them had wood-carved ornamentation comprising vegetal motifs, rosettes and other geometric elements. Later, spoon racks were also decorated with openwork ornaments. Mountaineers from the Podhale region were particularly skilled in making decorative spoon racks; they sold their products at fairs in the region. Thus, an ostensibly simple item became an example of the peasant artistry. It is interesting that the aforementioned spoon rack, apart from wooden spoons, also held three metal spoons that would have been regarded as luxury items, a rather striking fact when considering our modern cutlery – tablespoons, teaspoons, forks, small forks for cake and knives, all manner of knives and implements, most of them of stainless steel or even finer metals, all arranged carefully in a kitchen drawer.

Shingle Shaving Chuck
Inventory No. MP 2801
Origin: Sącz region
Dating: early 20^th century

In the Niecew cottage, a large post was set in the middle of the chamber, forming an axis of the entire household, around which daily life of the residents was focused. On the post is a so-called ‘chuck’, a simple wooden device used to shave roof shingles. Shingles are thin, short and narrow boards that began to be used as roofing material in the 17^th century in Polish villages. Only the best quality wood, not warped, was used for shingles. Production of shingles started with cracking tree trunks with an axe. The ability to divide a block of wood into parts was very important, as was true of other types of handicraft related to woodworking, such as coopery or wheel-making. The laths procured from wood cracking were placed in the chuck and then shaved with an ‘ośnik’, a knife-like tool with handles on both ends of the blade shaft, shaping them into a wedge. In the thicker part of the shingle, a groove called ‘faza’ or ‘felc’ was made. In the foothill areas of the Sącz region, in particular in the Sącz Valley, rye straw was the more common kind of roofing. This had to do with the availability and quality of the material. On fertile cropland, rye grew to a rather large size, and the straw was long enough to cover a roof with it, whereas places that were richly forested had plenty of good wood for shingle-making. But, the choice of material was also influenced by the price. In the vicinity of Gorlice in the 19^th century, the Lemko communes purchased a number of forested areas that belonged to landlords as common property. The availability of limitless amounts of free wood resulted in the fact that in the Lemko community, shingle roofs became quite common and definitely outnumbered straw roofs.