Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1989. január-június (43. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1989-05-04 / 18. szám
Thursday, May 4. 1989. 11. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO Hungarian China, Formal to Folk Herend, or Herendi as it is called in Hungary, has long been among the world's most prestigious porcelains and is still being produced at a little village north of Lake Balaton, about 65 miles from Budapest. Hungarian porcelain - not only Herendi but also the less-known Zsolnay - is also among the things a visitor to Hungary will be tempted to buy. Porcelain has been produced in Herend since 1826, but Herend owes its reputation to Mór Fischer, who took over the management in 1839. At first, Europe's aristocratic families came to Herend to have replacements made for their Meissen, Sevres or Altwien services that had been discontinued by the original makers. Many designs typical of these porcelain factories, have passed into the Herend repertory- the Meissen soup tureens with handles made of halved lemons, the Sevres shepherdesses, the Parsley motif, the favorite of the Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary. Originally made by Altwien in Vienna until that factory closed. Then in 1851, Mór Fischer took his own creation, the famous Chinese butterfly pattern, to the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in London, where it was praised - and purchased - by Queen Victoria herself. It is called the Victoria pattern to this day. Another well-known motif is the Rothschild, a series of birds playing with a necklace. Fischer is said to have conceived the idea during the 1850's, when one of the Rothschilds lost a valuable necklace and finally discovered her heirloom dangling from a tree to which it had been whisked away by some mischievous magpies. The story goes that Mór Fischer personally delivered the dinner service to the Rothschild ' family, setting the table himself to insure that the porcelain be seen to its best advantage.When, after gasping in delight, his patrons enquired about the price, Fischer is said to have replied, although he only had enough money in his pocket for the fare home: "Now, as we view a masterpiece, it is hardly the time to talk of money." At the Herend factory, the intricate plumage of every bird, every butterfly's wing, every red spot on the rabbit figurines, is painted by hand. The petals of the tiny rosebuds are shaped by expert fingers while each small square hole of the openwork plates - and there can be up to 4000 such holes - is eased out by hand. The little flower-fringed baskets are made out of long shoelaces of clay painstakingly looped over a mold. Of the 1200 people working in the factory - 25 artisans graduate every year from the special Herend porcelain school in the village - half are painters. After five years working in the factory these painters can take part in a one-year course that qualifies them as master-painters, entitled to sign their names at the bottom of the pieces they decorate. Today there are over 20 master-painters in the Herend factory. More artists than artisans they paint such pieces as the specially commissioned Ali Baba-like jars, depicting the palace of an Arabian sheik, or the 18th century sylvan scenes on limited edition vases or lamps, or the lakeside A phalanx of figurines at the Herend factory. vistas on the deep-yellow-bordered Bala- tonfiired tea service, named for the resort on the shores of Lake Balaton, where Mór Fischer often vacationed. The Herend factory never discontinues a design, so that a broken demitasse from great-grandmama's coffee service can always be replaced, although new motifs are constantly introduced. Out of a total of about 260 patterns, approximately 30 are available in the United States. Although the figurines are very popular,He- rend is most famous for its tableware. The Herend management would prefer customers to order from stores like Scully in New York, or from branches of Gump's and Neiman-Marcus, but it is possible to order a dinner service directly from the Herend showroom while you are in Hungary - at a price about 40 to 50 percent lower than in the United States. Production time is optimistically estimated at eight months. Along with the pattern, you can choose your basic plate or dish shape, either osier, with a basket-weave motif, in relief around the edge, or rocaille, which, in addition to the basket weave, also has flowing lines raised in relief in the white porcelain. (Herend porcelain is not dishwasher-proof.) Herend tableware is priced in 12 categories, depending on the intricacy of the artwork, the burnished gold decoration and on the number of firings - some pieces are fired up to six times. One place setting comprising soup plate, dinner plate and side plate, would retail in the United States from $ 150 (category 1) to $ 1.300 (category 12). John hibák Memorial Show io Fifty years ago, this month, the most dazzling exposition in the country's history - the 1939 World's Fair - opened in New York. This month the SOHO PHOTO GALLERY presents John Albok's photographs of the 1939 World's Fair. John Albok was born in Hungary in 1894. He immigrated to New York and soon after opened a tailor shop on Upper Madison Avenue. For 60 years he worked as a tailor and lived upstairs. After photographing people from his "'indow, in the neighborhood, and in nearby Central Park, he would return to his tailor shop which he had transformed into a darkroom. Albok's subjects were, to a large extent, the depression poor. His empathy is evident in his images. John Albok died at the age of 87 in 1982. One day before a major retrospective was to open at the Museum of the City of New York. His first exhibit at SOHO Photo was in February 1981. "Old-fashioned charm- an effect of sweetness, almost - that's quite unlike anything to be found in the work of better-known photographers", said Gene Thornton in the N.Y. Times. Albok's story and work were the subject of a CBS documentary. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit is open till May 6 at the SOHO Gallery, 15 White St. N.Y.C. Phone: (212) 226-8571. The youngest: the SZEGED BALLET The Szeged Ballet performs to its audiences in the newly reconstructed Szeged National Theatre, in the town of that name on the southern Great Plain on the banks of the river Tisza. The company made its debut in the autumn of 1987, with 32 members. Beforehand the ensemble had already performed in the Szeged National Theatre, but at irregular intervals and with an uneven standard. Supported by the theatre management, the renewed company is moving towards a clear artistic goal: while providing the ballet and dance elements of operas, operettas and musicals to a high standard, they are laying the foundation for their own life. By regularly inviting Hungarian and foreign choreographers, they are expanding their repertoir through various styles. The ballet program with which they made their debut also reflected this intention: three Hungarian choreographers living in West Germany and Britain (György Vámos, Ferenc Barbay and Zoltán Imre) each rehearsed a piece with them. These were interpreted by outstanding solo dancers, such as Marta Metzger and Lilia Partay, the laureated solo dancers of the Hungarian State Opera House, and György Szakaly, who is an acclaimed star of the Budapest and Bonn opera houses. Please give this page to a friend!
