Papiery dokumentów rodzinnych Bohdana Marconiego

The first half of the 19th century saw a considerable growth of paper industry in the Polish Kingdom, which was directly associated with the general technical progress and the steadily widening range of activities of Polish publishers. Although lots of high- quality papers were still further imported from abroad the manufacture of wove papers was started in paper mill at Mary mont near Warsaw in 1821 and then at Jeziorna and Sople. Particularly high quality papers were achieved at Jeziorna paper mill where also the production of machine-made papers was started. It is a well-known fact that as librares and archives are basic source for investigations and studies of history of paper-making are to be. Among them the family archives are most hardly accessible for reseachers. The collection of family documents from the years 1818—1870 concerning the family of Kolbergs famous for their merits for the Polish culture, gathered by the late Professor B. Marconi is considered to be extremely interesting. The author carried out in analysis of papers forming the above collection from two viewpoints, i.e. this of provenience and that quality of papers which enabled the following findings: (a) the central institutions of the Polish Kingdom willingly the high-quality papers of Dutch make, (b) the development of domestic paper mills caused that in addition to those imported there were also applied the wove papers from Jeziorna mill, (c) starting from the mid-nineteenth century the handmade papers gave gradually their place in those machine- -made.