Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)

Piroska NOVÁK: On the porcelain designer career of Éva Ambrus

Neo-Renaissance style dinner set, she instead chose—with the permission of Ádám Habuda, director of the Fine Ceramics Industrial Works—to work at the Alföld Porcelain Factory, which promised new, contemporary challenges.12 (Fig. 1.)

The Alföld Porcelain Factory was established in 1965 in Hódmezővásárhely, a town with a long tradition of ceramic art but no history of porcelain manufacturing, no experience and no well-trained work force. The first operation in the Alföld Porcelain Factory’s complex, which would eventually include the four branches of the silicate industry, was the sanitary plant, inaugurated in 1967. This was followed by plants producing tools and fireproof materials in 1968 and one year later, in 1969, the dishware-manufacturing plant. Finally, in 1971 the tile and floor covering division began operation. The factory was equipped with modern, partially automated production line machinery imported from East Germany (German Democratic Republic—GDR). The new equipment was used chiefly to manufacture the Liana set, previously imported from East Germany, in order to meet the yearly production quota of three thousand tons. In addition to undertaking production of the Liana set, which had been produced in large quantities in East Germany, the manufactory also began producing the Krisztina table set designed by Mrs István Torma13 and a set for the food service industry designed by potter János Mónus and plaster model maker Sándor Ceglédi. The latter service bore the features of folk ceramic arts and therefore did not quite meet the requirements for industrial production.14

For Éva Ambrus, the first years in Hódmezővásárhely were difficult. Little confidence was placed in the credentialed designer, who—like her colleagues in other

2. Éva Ambrus: Laura tea set, prototype, 1969, Museum of Applied Arts, inv. no.: 2017.43.1-5.1-2.

Photo: Krisztina Friedrich

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