Folia Historica 31. (Budapest, 2016)

I. KÖSZÖNTJÜK A 80 ÉVES T. NÉMETH ANNAMÁRIÁT - Radnóti Klára: A Schunda család és a Nemzeti Múzeum - a magyar hangszergyártás emlékei a múzeumban

THE SCHUNDA FAMILY AND THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM - RELICS OF HUNGARIAN INSTRUMENT MAKING

IN THE MUSEUM

Summary

During the history of the Hungarian National Museum, there were several moments when the institution came into contact with one of the most renowned Hungarian instrument making companies, the one of the Schund a family. Josef Schunda (1818-1893) was admitted to the instrument makers' guild in 1847. His workshop flourished under Vencel József Schunda (1845-1923), whose son Károly (1879-1940) took over the company later on. In the Schunda family the technical know-how and the spirit of innovation were coupled with business savvy, which enabled Vencel József Schunda to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his time. His greatest business success story was, undoubtedly, the creation and construction of the cimbalom with a damper pedal in 1874, while the patent for the so-called modern „tárogató" (a Hungarian woodwind instrument) granted in 1897 is also linked to his name. The inventor intended the first Schunda cimbalom, exhibited during the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the company, to form part of the collection of the Museum as a national relic. A few years later, in 1927, came another anniversary, which Károly Schunda made memorable to us with a larger donation, thus becoming one of the generous patrons of the Museum. Later on, his widow also contacted us, wishing to contribute to our collection by offering us some business and family relics. Such encounters proved profitable for both parties: the Museum's collection of musical instruments and documents became richer thanks to the donations of the Schunda family, while the relics preserved in the Museum increased the reputation of the company. The so acquired musical instruments are real documents of the history of Hungarian instrument making: they are rare and precious works of art, emblems of the instrument making industry of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, since the activity of the company was, for a long time, a real success story of the Hungarian industry. The company's 80-year-long history began in the middle of the 19th century, as part of a guild-based industry, and came to an end during the economic crisis of the 1920s, the great breakdown of modem capitalist production: Károly Schunda's company went bankrupt in 1931. The history of the Schunda family, brought to us by the documents and objects preserved in the Museum, also reveals the specific features and problems of Hungarian instrument making.

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