Numismatic equipment from the Museum of Slavonia - cases, chests, boxes, carton

The paper researches and deals with numismatic equipment of the Museum of Slavonia dating from the 19th and early 20th centries for storing numismatic collections belonging to numismatists-givers Karlo Franjo Nuber, Max Zucker, Rudolf Normann, Herman Weissmann. It witnesses the collections that once were kept there as well as cultural development level of the social environment and its owners. Besides general data on coin collecting, its importance and preferences as well as numismatic interest of the four above mentioned Slavonian numismatists have been presented. They are collectors-givers who systematically supplied their collections, stored them carefully and according to European standards in specialized equipment and with equal care considered the final destination for their collections after they died. The Museum of Slavonia is one of the rare museum institutions not only in Slavonia but in Croatia holding such a rich collection of numismatic equipment. In course of their multicentenary development the numismatic collections have been stored in designated cabinet chests, luxurious chests of drawers, chests, leather-covered boxes. Boxes and chests were locked with snaplocks and carried, like books, for exchange and displaying. Coin collections were sometimes stored in court treasuries beside rich libraries, natural-history samples, equipped armoury with antique arms, gallery of ancestorsportraits of older family members reconstructing family history. At the estate and manor-house in Valpovo, which had been owned by two families – the Barons Hilleprand von Prandau and Counts Normann-Ehrenfels for 224 years there were 62 rooms with archive, library, armoury of antique and valuable arms that were later given to museums in Vienna or partially dispersed. Family numismatic collection of the counts Normann-Ehrenfels was given to the Museum in 1942 (catalogue nr. 2-3). Besides numismatic material other archaeological material was being collected, frequently epigraphic, such as stone monuments built in walls of churches and castles. This is exemplified by Roman stone monuments that reached the Osijek Museum in 1951 built in the wall fence of the count Pejačević (Pejacsevich) castle in Osijek. In 1948 several Roman monuments built in the manor-house of Prince Eugen of Savoy in Bilje near Osijek were conveyed to the Museum. Numismatic collections were in the course of their development very frequently the foundations of big numismatic cabinets making today basic scientific institutes. These collections – cabinets were often assigned to libraries. This was the case in Zagreb as well, since National library was the starting collection point of the Zagreb numismatic collection. In general history of Osijek eminent art collectors – museum donors certainly the most prominent place is taken by the traveller and wholesale merchant Karlo Franjo Nuber (1872-1935), who was fascinated by classical heritage. It was only by his merit that the Museum in Osijek holds now one of the most beautiful collections of national numismatic- the collection of banalis, one of the best collections of Dubrovnik coinage and a quite valuable Greek and Roman coinage collection. In his library he held serious numismatic editions that he actively read and put valuable notes as additional evidence of his interest in numismatics. He gave the majority of his numismatic bibliography to the Museum. It is important to note that Nuber donated his valuable collections in specialized numismatic cases, cabinets with coin deposit and inventory notes or cardboards that give evidence of his relationship towards material and care about the way it was going to be stored (catalogue nr. 1, 5-9, 11-13, 15, 16). Unlike Nuber and his collection, we know less about the Osijeker Max Zucker, who was Nuber’s great oponent, controversial numismatist and the builder of the former Royal Great Grammar School and Primary school in the Lower Town in Osijek and about his collection of antique coinage. In 1903 the Museum came into the possession of (a part of) Zucker’s collection that was stored in standardized cardboards with deposits and notes on the coinage (catalogue nr. 17). During the war in 1943 Dr Herman Weissmann, a lawyer and eminent Osijek inhabitant gave the Museum his family numismatic collection stored in a wooden chest and separately antique coinage in cardboards that were inserted in wooden boxes. Specilized chest from Weissmann’s donation has the shape of a prismal chest of drawers (10) made of stained and varnished oak wood. The chest has a small movable door that opens when pulled upwards (catalogue nr. 4). The Collection comprises various numismatic cardboards with coin deposits- simple, made of regular, unpainted or multicoloured, decorated cardboards with smooth or corrugated board, or smaller cardboard or wooden boards for smaller coinage