Veres László: Üvegművességünk a XVI-XIX. században (Miskolc, 2006)
HUNGARIAN GLASSWARE PRODUCTION IN THE 16TH—19TH CENTURIES
which the discovery of the written sources and the examination of the end-product, which is the item itself, cannot be done separately. The monographic studies presenting the history of Hungarian glass-making always record a momentary state in the sense that the written sources always relate to a group of objects existing in a given period. During the period of great experiments and seeking various ways of production — signalled bv names such as Henrik Giergl, "Leo Valentin Pantotsek and István Sovánka — the first monographs of Hungarian glass-making were written by József Bárdos and Simon Telkes. They are pioneering works as they had no predecessors. Bárdos rather used the sources of the recent past and living memory as well as contemporary sources. This is how he tried to define the 19 th century tendencies of applied art basing his ideas on the rapidly growing collection of the Museum of Applied Arts. Simon Telkes, on the other hand, presented the history of the Hungarian glass industry using the data of industrial statistics. Vince Warthas work also reflected a momentary state, as it gave special attention to the works of contemporary applied art exhibited in the millennial exhibitions. The presentation of the outline of the history of glass and the display of the representative items of the Hungarian relics was merely a framework and illustration to the essential message. The first expert's work w r as that of Kornél Divald, which is of particular value. His study, which appeared in The Book of Applied Arts before World War 1, discusses the history of the Hungarian glass industry as an intrinsic part of universal glass art. Accordingly, he presents the most beautiful items of the existing art products, analyses their formal and decorative characteristics and compares them to European relics with similar traits. The work presents the glass works that were considered most important as a result of the studies written by Sándor Takáts, Ödön Kárffy, IMJOS Kemény and Károly Tagányi, which were based on archive research. The research results of these experts allowed assumptions concerning the great number of glassworks that were operating in the Carpathian Basin. The detailed study of their operation may essentially transform the face of glass-making as was known before the 20 th century. It was already Kornél Divald who raised the significance of studying carefully each glasswork as well as the importance of surveying the archaeological finds in addition to the glass products qualified as items of applied art. He also emphasised the collection of simple rustic glasses. Supposedly, it was Divald's archaeological inventory that inspired József Höllrigl, the manager of the glass collection of the Hungarian National Museum when he wrote his study of the Old Hungarian Glass, which was published in 1934 in Magyar művészet (Hungarian Art). This study testifies that the few material remains could not serve as a basis for establishing a connection between written sources and the early pieces of glass art. It was not yet the time for creating a picture of glass making in the Middle Ages that could have been illustrated by various products. The period resulting in new monographs of research into glass art came only after a long break following Kornél Divald's work. It was started by the publication of Tajos Sághelys work, A History of the Hungarian Glass Industry in 1938, followed by De%ső Hiverfs The Glass Industry and Glass Manufacturing in 1940 and Mihály Gurmafe Glass in 1943. Unfortunately these works have not yielded new findings either with regard to their data or their conclusions. Their sources, data and conclusions are essentially identical to those of Simon Telkes and Kornél Divald, with the single exception of Eajos Sághelyi's work. Sághelyi's monograph is also basically a reproduction of earlier research results. A new element, however, is the chapter discussing the glass guilds and glass arts and crafts. While the 1940s, which saw the second period of monographs, were basically characterised by reproduction, the period commencing in the 1960s focused on the examination of the objects and the exploitation of the possibilities offered by the written sources. This third period of glass monographs started with the work of Béla Borsos. Borsos wrote his work using primarily objects belonging to private owners and to a lesser extent pieces in public collections as well as basing his study on already published works rather than sources in the archives. It was first published in 1965, while the second much revised edition appeared in 1974. The most valuable section of the corpus is made up of the chapters discussing 19th century glass craft. This was no accident as the author did extensive research into the sources from the times following the reform period and the war of
