The collector Jindřich Waldes and the curator Jan Hofman: One museum, two approaches

Abstract

The study deals with an aspect not considered until now in relation to the Waldes Museum of Buttons and Fasteners, existing in Prague-Vršovice between 1916 and 1945, founded at the initiative of Prague industrialist, collector, and patron of the arts Jindřich Waldes. Alongside Waldes, the other key figure was art historian, conservationist and museum curator Jan Ješek Hofman, whose work between 1916 and 1919 in many ways achieved the plan to build a collection and research institution. What was behind this outwardly-representative, functioning private institution and how did the relationship between Waldes, an enthusiastic and affluent private collector, and Hofman, the expert tasked with putting his ideas in place at a professional level, actually evolve? The study aims to present an interpretation of the relationship by analysing preserved archival materials and period publications. It also represents the Waldes Museum as a remarkable museum experiment.