Jagdwagen

Jagdwagen – a six-person hunting carriage, for two or four horses, which could be driven by the owner, equipped with a fixing grille for the fallen game, from the beginning of the 20th century, from an unknown property in Prussia or Greater Poland, at that time in the Prussian partition zone. Purchased by the Łańcut Castle Museum for the Museum Vehicle Collection, it underwent a general refurbishment at the renowned Bogajewicz company works of Pniewy Szamotulskie, operating in the years 1890- 2015. The Jagdwagen is the sole typical vehicle type that was used to travel to hunts that has a reference to the hunt in its name. This German name applies to hunting vehicles commonly used in the 19th and 20th centuries in Western Europe – primarily in German-speaking countries and the Netherlands. The Prussian jagdwagen type made its way to the Polish properties in Greater Poland, where they were also called polowce. These Prussian six-person hunting carriages, seen in Greater Poland, had boxy upper bodies in natural wood colour, and instead of side hand rails it had leather bands joined by clasps fixed to brass rods, and in the back – a grille fixed to hinges and suspended on leather bands, to which the fallen game was fixed. However, the Jagdwagen made its way much farther than the Prussian partition zone. The Western European hunting carriage with the game grille, with a primitive carriage and frame-like boxy upper carriage filled with panels of wood or leather, driven by servants in stylish hunting uniforms, using two horses and a special Hungarian harness for excursions, can be seen on the photograph of Józef Potocki from Pilavin in Volhynia. In Polish properties in Greater Poland, in turn, where the Jagdwagen was most frequently seen, they weren’t the only vehicles used for hunts. The discussed Jagdwagen is one of two that the Łańcut Castle Museum had purchased for its collection. It has a boxy upper body in natural wood colour, with two analogous two-person, upholstered seats, one behind the other, and an additional one facing to the rear behind the front seat. At the main front and back seats there are mentioned hand rails in the form of double leather bands, typical of the Jagdwagen. The side mud guards are bent to shape, wooden, joined at the centre with a broad step. In the back, there is a slightly bent broad grille for the fallen game, attached below using hinges, and fixed above using leather bands. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska