Wjulia's gift
In Poland, in the second half of the 19th century, people were struggling to emerge from yet another period of war. Some peace had come, but poverty and sorrow were everywhere.
The entrance gate to the Tarnowski Palace in Końskie
On a cold autumn evening, as the wind whipped through the streets of Końskie, Wjulia, a woman with a generous heart and a lively mind, walked briskly through the streets of the small Polish town. Her day had been busy, but a strange feeling of restlessness accompanied her.
As she walked down the main street, she saw a lone figure sitting on a bench, wrapped in threadbare rags and looking lost in infinity. She was an old woman, the wrinkle of poverty etched on her weathered face. Wjulia's heart clenched at seeing her like this, alone and destitute.
The Chapel of Małachowski Park
Without hesitation, Wjulia approached her with a firm and gentle step, offering her some hot food he had just bought. The elderly woman, surprised and moved by this gesture of kindness, gratefully accepted. They started talking and Wjulia listened to the story of a life marked by hardship, of days spent without a warm meal or a roof over her head.
The human warmth between them, combined with Wjulia's generosity, prompted the elderly woman to show her gratitude in an unexpected way. With a light in her eyes, she recounted that she possessed a hidden treasure, a family inheritance that she jealously guarded: a chest full of fine porcelain cups.
Ceramics from Bolesławiec
The woman insisted on offering Wjulia this gift, as a tangible sign of her gratitude for the gesture of kindness and compassion she had shown her. Wjulia, moved, hesitated for a moment, feeling the gravity of that gesture. But then, she accepted with a bright smile, realising that this was not just material generosity, but a gift of the heart.
The two women said goodbye with the promise to meet again, with the hope of a better future for both. Wjulia, thanks to the woman's directions, found the house, now abandoned, and inside it she found the case, indeed overflowing with beautiful and valuable objects.
With the case full of precious cups in her arms, she returned home, reflecting on the transformative power of kindness and compassion. The evening had brought not only a material treasure, but also a treasure trove of emotions and human connections that would continue to shine in her heart for a long time to come.
The Glorietta
But Wjulia felt she could still do something, indeed she felt she had to. So she put the mugs up for sale, which sold out very quickly also because she demanded reasonable prices, and with the proceeds she bought new, warm clothes for the old woman. She searched for her, not without difficulty because the poor woman had moved out of the neighbourhood, but she found her and this time she made her promise that she would always be found. She also offered to sell for her the other things the abandoned house held, and gave her the proceeds.
In the meantime, as times were difficult for everyone, other people sought out Wjulia and asked her if she could sell other valuable goods for them: porcelain, ornaments, crystal, mirrors, and even other cups. It didn't take Wjulia long to get organised and she quickly set up a small antique and gift shop. Mainly porcelain. Especially mugs.
Wjulia took the old woman to work with her, who could not believe such generosity, saved her from the street and gave her a home and security for her future.
The shop grew and gradually became very well known; when Wjulia died, her sons took it over as her most precious legacy and continued the business. Other wars came, other difficult and hard times, other times of unjust suffering of the people of Końskie. And of the neighbouring peoples. But the shop always remained in Wjulia's family, even when a time came when trade was tightly controlled by the state and people needed basic necessities and had no way of dealing in porcelain and other ceramics. Not even the famous ones from Bolesławiec, a national pride and ancient tradition since the Middle Ages.
Khalil Gibran said that «one cannot touch the dawn unless one has walked the paths of the night». The long night of that grave period came to an end and gave way to a cold and uncertain dawn. In Wjulia's family, too, there were departures for distant destinations in search of better opportunities. The new system also made it difficult to rebuild the business that the shop had known in the past, and new 'modern' products, with no tradition and no connection to the history of our people, but often very cheap, filled the gift-shop shoppers' purses. Thus, the few remaining family members were only able to continue selling a few items, until a painful end was put to our tradition a few years ago.
But we didn't give up at all, so today the shop is reborn in a different way: it has become a digital shop.
𝒲𝒿𝓊𝓁𝒾𝒶'𝓈 𝑔𝒾𝒻𝓉.
The name of this shop.
We, the heirs of Wjulia who have settled in Italy, in this land that we got to know and love at the end of the 20th century, in this country that made us know beauty in every art form, we do feel that we still have something to share. Of our tradition, our experience, our pride and our passion: the pleasure of a beautiful gift.
We work to enable as many people as possible to give a gift of those who remember, who make the giver remember, just as we remember Wjulia.
We never knew the name of the old woman. Her memory, however, is always with us. Like a gift received.