A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 19. (1980)

FÜGEDI Márta: A miskolci fésűs mesterség

292 FÜGEDI MÁRTA The study pays special attention to the ornamentation of the so called back-combs or hair hangers. Beside different colours painted on them, the hair hangers were ornamented with minor patterns cut out with frett-saw. Patterns made after paperpatterns spread in Hungary in the middle of the 19th c. following western, mainly Austrian influences. The paper patterns were carried by wandering lads. About 200 paper patterns of comb makers in Miskolc are preserved in the museum. The study deals with the history of the comb makers' guild on the basis of some written sources, first of all the register book of the guild. The comb making craft did never pay important role in Miskolc, neither could it equal with other branches producing goods for dressing. There were only a few masters registered even at the most flourishing period of the craft, in the middle of the 19th c. The data of the register telle, that the craftsmanship was inherited by the boys, thus, for instance, more than one generations were to be found in the craft from the Ruzst, Choma, Balog and Pető families. We can read about the organisational life of the guild in the register, too, thus about the learning of the profession, the conditions of making a master work, and also the different stages of fight against the botchers. It is interesting, that the "landmaister" of the comb-makers' guild worked on far away settlements as well, that is the guild collected the masters of a large territory to the center in Miskolc. Difficulties conserning purchase and marketing began to accumulate at the beginning of the 20th c. The number of the masters was decreasing, and the craft has actually disappeared in Miskolc by the 30-ies. Márta Fügedi