At the Common Table

Permanent exhibition at the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes in Słupsk presenting cutlery and cooking accessories from the 17th to the 21st century.

The exhibition is located on the second floor of the Słupsk castle, in two halls whose renovation was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In total, there are more than 1,400 exhibits. They are presented in chronological and typological order. These include basic cutlery—spoons, knives and forks, as well as specialised cutlery for serving and eating one type of dish, such as oysters or berries. Separately, serial products are presented, mainly from the Polish manufacturers Norblin and Fraget.

The core of the exhibition is cutlery made between 1875 and 1939 in European factories—mostly German and Polish as well as English and French; there are also American products. Some of the pieces are artisanal products made in small goldsmith's workshops—others were made in manufactures and even in large factories.

A significant part of the exhibition consists of two finds discovered after the war in Słupsk. Both were hidden in 1945 by residents evacuating from the city. The first is the legacy of the noble von Kleist family—tableware comprising almost 300 items, mainly silver cutlery and marked with the owners' coats of arms. The second is the possessions of a middle-class bourgeois family—glassware and faience. Other objects were collected over several decades; some come from the pre-war Heimatmuseum.

exhibition script: Anna Sujecka
exhibition design: Grzegorz Sujecki