Kashubian
Snuff Containers
Does anybody need a “Tabakiera”
?
Story by:
Peter von Pazatka Lipinsky
In 2006,
the annual mock battle between
the Turkish army under Sultan
Kara Mustafa and the Kashubs
under the leadership of
Jan
III
Sobieski, King of Poland,
commemorating the siege of the
City of Vienna in 1683, was
taken place again on the
fairgrounds in the village of
Brzezno - Szlacheckie, Poland.
The
performance was well attended
and many people from the
surrounding villages wore their
traditional Kashubian costume.
At the fairgrounds, there were
several vendors who had tables
set up,
to
sell their wares, ranging from
cotton candy, different foods,
books, balloons and beverages.
The book display got my
attention and while I was
looking at several books, I
noted that one of the men
standing next to me and dressed
in a
fancy Kashubian vest took some
sort of container out of his
pocket. The container looked
small and cone shaped and also
had some sort of silver ornament
on the outside. The fellow
proceeded to put something from
this container on the back of
his hand and sniff it. I
remembered now that this must be
nasal snuff,
that
I had read about somewhere a
long time ago.
This habit dates back to around
the 16th century.
Later that day, I met my friend,
Przemyslaw, on the fairgrounds
and I asked him about the
container the snuff was being
kept in. My friend told me that
these containers are specially
made
out
of cow horns, some are rather
plain while other snuff
containers are richly decorated
with silver and sometimes even
with some carvings. These snuff
containers, are very prominent
in the region of Kashubia,
because of their reasonable cost
and also because of being so
unique. A friend of
Przemyslaws
had
one of these snuff containers
and I was able to have a
closer look.
Now
here was something that would
fit in my collection of
Kashubian items back
home in Canada . So, over the
next little while and before it
was time to catch my plane back
to Canada, I was able to locate
and buy a few of these snuff
containers. I needed to find out
a lot more about these strange
looking snuff containers and I
realized that on my next visit
to Poland,
I
must give this item some more
attention.
Snuff
containers are usually made from
one of the following materials;.
silver, gold, copper, ivory,
glass,
leather
and
wood ,
to
name a few.
Now,
several
years later , the opportunity
arose to meet in person one of
the master craftsmen, Mr.
Rudolf
Krecki,
who
created
these snuff containers
or
Tabakiera
as
they are called in Polish.
Driving about 50 km. south-west
from the City of Gdansk and just
past the City of Kartusy , you
will see on the left hand side
of the
highway lined with huge
linden/lipca trees, a rather
large sign
“WYROBY
Z
ROGU"
with a workshop and a picture of
a large Tabakiera. The workshop
is located 150 meters off the
highway.
At
the shop, we met Mr. Rudolf
Krecki, a very friendly and
jovial gentleman who proudly
shows us his collection of
Tabakieras, which he has made
over the years. Rudolf
tells us, that he retired about
15 years ago, and that is when
he took up the hobby of making
Tabakieras.
A
friend from a nearby village
showed Rudolf how to get
started.
To
my dismay, I
find out that almost all of
the
Tabakieras, which are on display
in show cases in his office ,
are not for sale, but are part
of Rudolf’s very own collection.
But Rudolf always has a few of
the Tabakieras for sale and I
was able to buy a couple of very
nice Tabakieras
at a reasonable price.
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A
good
craftsman will not reveal all of
his trade secrets, but
Rudolf
told
us
a
few details how the Tabakieras
are being made. Rudolf visits
several abattoirs in nearby
towns to select only the very
best cow horns. Special
attention has to
be
paid to size and colour of the
horns. Most cow horns are black,
but some are brown, yellow or
multi coloured..
Nicely coloured cow horns are
hard to find and Tabakieras made
from these cow horns are
more
expensive. Only the tips of the
cow horns are used for the
Tabakieras. Other portions of
the cow horns or smaller horns
can be
used for other items such as
powder horns, jewelry boxes etc.
Your imagination will set the
limit, of what can be made out
of cow horns. To clean the cow
horns, they are
boiled
in
a
large kettle
of water for 4 to 5
hours.
To
shape the cow horn, the horn is
be heated over a very hot coal
fire.
Special
tools are used to shape the horn
into the desired shape of a
Tabakiera.
Now
that the cow horn
has
taken shape, the surface has to
be sanded first with coarse and
later with fine
sandpaper . The final touch up
job is polishing the Tabakiera,
which is done with a electric
buffer.
The
end result is a Tabakiera with a
smooth polished surface and as
shiny as a piano.
Not all
Tabakieras look the same, as
they come in different sizes,
shapes and colours .
The
two coloured Tabakieras are more
expensive because the right
colour combination is hard to
find. Some Tabakieras are
decorated with a
miniature
design of a Silver Griffin.
Rudolf gets all the silver work
done by a qualified Gold Smith.
Prices for one of
these
Tabakieras can range from as low
as $ 25.00
and
up to several hundred
dollars
depending on
size,
amount of silver decorations and
overall
craftsmanship. Mr. Rudolf
Krecki
has
customers all over the world.
You can get in touch with Mr.
Rudolf Krecki at:
Rudolf
Krecki
83 - 324
Brodnica
Gorna
Poland
Telephone
: 600-428-134, (058)
684-54-51
