Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)

Lilla ERDEI T.: Kerchiefs Adorned with Bobbin Lace Pendants from the Second Half of the 17* and First Half of the 18th Century

5. Eva Tlmköly, wife of Pál Esterházy, c. 1689, oil on canvas, Esterházy Privatstiftung, Eisenstadt Esterházy-Ahnengalerie, Burg Forchtenstein, Foto Manfred Horváth, Wien from all lour corners. As it was most vulnerable, very few specimens survive. The original function is illustrated by two 17* century paintings, the portraits of Anna Julianna Esterházy, the wife of Ferenc Nádasdy (second half of 17

th c.) and Eva Thököly, wife of Pál Esterházy (1689)'

4 (ill. 5). Both aristocratic ladies wear typical Hungarian costumes with an apron lined with broad lace trimming and a wealth of jewels. They hold unadorned white kerchiefs in their hands, with the round lace pendants with tulip pattern well visible at the corners. These laces of thin thread were easily torn so after too much wear they were removed from the embroidered kerchiefs and replaced by others or when the pendants went out of fashion, thinner trimming lace was applied to hem the kerchiefs. However, embroidered kerchiefs without lace were also popular. The majority of the few known pieces survived in ecclesiastic possession, for believers donated the valuable and fine pieces as votive presents to their churches and they were used in religious function during the services. This explains why they can be found in catholic (Krivány, today Kriváh, Slovakia), Calvinist (Garamszeg, today Hronsek, Slovakia; Zabola; Dunaalmás; Botpalád; Gelej), Lutheran (Gyüd; Eperjes, today Presov, Slovakia) and Unitarian (Kissáros, today Maly Saris, Slovakia) congregations, usually as altar cloths. Some pieces are in museum collections but they were received directly or indirectly via some religious connection (e.g. in the Calvinist Collection of Sárospatak, Municipal Museum of Pozsony [today Bratislava, Slovakia], Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest). The few remaining specimens are known mainly from the writings of Kornél Divald, Gertrud Palotay, Béla Takács and Emőke László on aristocratic embroideries and church textiles, and from Ema Marková's study on Slovakian laces.

15 Dowry lists and inventories of estates make mention of a large number of various kerchiefs, but they only give the quantity or at most the description of a type. They are sparing of words about the lace ornaments of the kerchiefs, e.g. "four white kerchiefs with lace, the fifth embroidered No. 5" (1647), or "number of kerchiefs: handkerchiefs, some with gold thread, some silk and some with lace, totalling 45" (1620). Rarely some more detail is also given. In the trousseau of Ilona Bárczay, widow of Kristóf Szinyei Merse (1677)

16 there is an exceptionally accurate