Pas kontuszowy

In the 17th century several sash manufactories were founded at places all over Rzeczpospolita, such as Kobyłka, Lipków, Hrodna, Kraków and Gdańsk.

Continual contact between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Persia and even more with Turkey developed vast trade roots and raised popular interest in oriental art and decoration all over Eastern Europe.

The Kontush Belt was a visual manifestation of Sarmatian identity and was widely popular in Lithuania and Belarus, in Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Saxony, Moldavia, Besarabia and some parts of Russia.

The time of prosperity during the period of XVI – XVIIIc created surplus financial resources often channeled into culture, art and decoration.

Polish Armenian merchants imported objects of luxury: oriental carpets, weapons decorated with gold and stones, expensive fabrics.

The workshops producing Kontush Belts in Slutsk, Grodno, Lvov, Vilnius, Buchach, Kobylki, Kraków, Gdansk, Lipkow were opened mostly by Polish–Lithuanian Armenians.

The complexity of the design raised the price even more since it required more complicated manufacturing machinery, higher qualifications of the craftsmen and a longer production cycle.