The exhibition has been produced as part of the Zagreb Trades museum project
Exhibition concept: Maja Arčabić
Exhibition design: Bilić_Müller Design Studio
Poster design: Bilić_Müller Design Studio
Zagreb City Museum safeguards the rich legacy of what is today the oldest Zagreb flower salon, Herzmansky at Đorđićeva 3b, consisting of documents, photographs, commendations, diplomas and medals won at local and world specialised competitions. The exceptionally rich collections of photographs and clippings tell of the history of the salon ever since 1925; by now the fourth generation of professional flower arrangers is at work there.
Tradesmen and women from the Herzmansky family, along with the training and experience that they acquired by work in their own flower salon, have also been educated in European and world big cities.
Their products have been shown at many flower shows at home and abroad, in cultural and public events. The salon has done floral arrangements for many VIPs around the world, including Belgian King Baudouin and Queen Elizabeth II.
The history of the Herzmansky flower salon is illustrated at the exhibition by photographs taken at local and foreign competitions, photographs of interiors decorated with the creations of the salon, photos of floral arrangements and bouquets taken since the 1920s and photographs of the tour of florist Maja Štrban around the USA, taken in 1968.
Among the prizes and recognitions, pride of place goes to those won in the 1920s at the Zagreb Fair, in the 1920s in Paris, Toulouse and Nice, in the 1960s in Rotterdam, Hamburg, Turin, San Remo and Trieste, and flower fairs in the 1960s and 1970s in Zagreb and Sisak.
The exhibition presents the prizes, medals, diplomas, photographs and documents that tell of the importance of the Herzmansky Salon for the Zagreb trades milieu. The set-up of the exhibition is complemented by the arrangements made by Martina Knapić Horvat – from the fourth generation of florists from this family salon.
A large number of family legacies are lost irretrievably in the course of time, while many are destroyed by being kept in inappropriate conditions. When objects with heritage characteristics are lost, many precious data and professional and family histories are lost. We hope that the gesture of Maja Štrban Knapić and the decision to commend to safe-keeping this valuable legacy of a successful family business, this year celebrating its eighty-fifth year of existence, will give a nudge to our fellow citizens to think of a similar way taking care of their family mementoes.
Interesting items from the history of the Herzmansky Salon
The Herzmansky Salon did the funeral wreaths for Stjepan Radić, King Aleksandar Karađorđević and Josip Broz Tito.
In the 1930s, the Herzmansky Salon arranged floral bouquets for Banski Dvori, the Croatian Music Institute, the Croatian National Theatre and many other institutions.
The Herzmansky Salon arranged the residences of the president of the SFRY in Belgrade and on the Brijuni islands; it was also engaged for all kinds of important political ceremonies such as conferences of non-aligned countries.
Maja Štrban Knapić did the floral arrangements for the
stages of the Split, Opatija and other music festivals.
In 1968 Maja Štrban Knapić promoted the work of Interflora in a tour of ten American cities. The archives of the salon have numerous attractive photos and newspaper articles from this tour.
Maja Arčabić
Interior of the Herzmansky Flower Salon, Zagreb, around 1930
First prize of the Association for Putting Up a Monument to King Tomislav in Zagreb awarded to Ella Kaiser Herzmansky for the most beautifully decorated car on the Flower Parade in Maksimir, Zagreb, June 9, 1929
Children's flower parade: automobile decorated with an arrangement of the Herzmansky Salon, Zagreb, 1937
Wall Street Open House Flower Show: Maja Štrban demonstrates making a bouquet of cut flowers, Los Angeles, November 3, 1968
Queen Elizabeth with floral spheres of the Herzmansky Salon, Belgrade, October 1972
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Maja Arčabić, ZCM
Exhibition catalogue
Arčabić, Maja. The Power of Flowers : 85 years of Zagreb's Herzmansky Salon.
Zagreb : Zagreb City Museum, 2010
