Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)
Diána RADVÁNYI: The Early Products and Brief History of the Porcelain Factory of Regéc
History of the Telkibánya factory When it comes to the foundation of the Telkibánya factory, the studies published on the theme so far name different dates. This uncertainty is caused by the first dated products being from as late as 1831, but these pieces are far from experimental. They were made from a thoroughly tested body, adorned with gilding and colour painting. Eventually Mihalik's presumed date became widely accepted. He, and after him Klára Marik Tasnádi and Imre Katona, put the date of foundation to 1825 on the basis of the business records of the estate," but the production of vessels is presumed to have started in 1829. The factory building had long existed before the Breczenheim family came into possession of the estate. In 1825 a manorial building built between the 1540s and 1570s was converted and fitted out for the new purpose. 1 2 The building still stands today, although only has two extra floors, whereas during porcelain production - surely in 1863 1 3 - it had three stories. The accounts and the changes in staff number reveal that the factory gradually expanded in the first decade. 1 4 From 1827 the factory director was Mátyás Hüttner 15 with his son József Hüttner as his assistant, as "Werkschafter" or foreman from 1835 and after the father's death in 1838 as director together with his mother for a short time. They later continued to work in Miskolc and Bélapátfalva. 1 6 In Mihalik's view, the Hüttner family was of Czech origin, related to the well-known Hüttners of the factories in Schlaggenwald and Elbogen. 17 A source from that period suggests that József Hüttner learnt - or improved - his craft "in Moravia". "Some ten years ago József Hüttner studied porcelain and majolica-making in Moravia and Bohemia at the expense of Prince Ferd. Breczenheim (...)", Imre Vahot wrote in 1854. 1 8 The director of the factory in its next period, when the finest vessels were produced and the factory's acknowledgement was at the zenith, was János Mayer, a well-known figure of Hungarian ceramic industry as the former director first of the Pápa factory and then at Herend. 1 9 He probably came to Telkibánya around 1841 and stayed until 1857. Under his guidance, the composition of the porcelain body was changed to achieve pure whiteness with the addition of Czech kaolin. In 1846 the Telkibánya ware was displayed at the trade shows in Kassa and Pest, and it won a small gold commemorative medal at the latter. Not much later historical events altered the life of the princely family. The increasingly more radical Hungarian government set up in 1848 looked upon Breczenheim, who was loyal to the imperial house and only supported the moderate reforms, as a "traitor of the country" and confiscated his property in 1849. 20 Breczenheim and his wife probably spent this period in Vienna. After the quenching of the revolution and war of independence, the earlier proprietary relations were restored but after a few years' calm, Ferdinánd Breczenheim died in 1855. There is no direct proof that the factory founder took part in designing and executing the products personally, but from the 1850s there are only one or two surviving objects of lesser quality. The makers of the outstanding chinaware of the years between 1845 and 1848 seem to have vanished suddenly. Instead of fine porcelain, their body is an inferior variant of the greyish-greenish material characteristic of the Telkibánya 77
