Veres Gábor: A népi bútorzat története Északkelet-Magyarországon - Studia Agriensia 28. (Eger, 2008)

THE HISTORY OF FOLK FURNITURE IN NORTHEASTERN HUNGARY

pressing importance than the construction of sufficient farm buildings, for it was on these buildings that the livelihood of the family depended. It is a matter of peasant logic supported by the fact that only a small part of human activity took place in the dwelling. Some members of the family didn’t even sleep there, and the space that was available was sufficient merely for the tasks of baking and cooking, and weaving and spinning in the winter. Eating in the home didn’t take place on a regular basis, a table being placed outside in the yard in good weather and meals eaten out in the fields on workdays.

Family members did not possess many clothes, which explains why there was hardly any furniture for storage purposes. Where such furniture does appear it was used for storing formal or church clothes, which all being well everybody had. The changes that took place in domestic culture during the nineteenth century were accompanied by changes in peasant attitudes. This did not mean, however, that representative pieces dating from the eighteenth century, or indeed earlier, did not continue to find themselves in folk dwellings. Records from our period show painted chests and “old peasant” cupboards dating back to the seventeenth century. On account of their important role at wedding ceremonies, one of the most important events in village communities, particular care was lavished on bridal chests, especially up to the eighteenth century. Unfortunately in the seventeenth century the written sources are restricted to mere mentions of a particular furniture’s existence rather than a description. From the second half of the century, however, we have examples of the objects themselves allowing one to detect the style and mode of manufacture that was characteristic of the region. Written records also suggest that storage furniture was the first of the contents of the peasant dwelling to show any signs of a specifically local style, occupying a very specific place within the living area positioned diagonally in one of the comers not occupied by the hearth. The number of dated examples in our region is however relatively small. The fashion of including the date of manufacture spread quicker on chests dependent on painted rather than surface decoration. Incised surface decoration was particularly characteristic of the trousseaux featuring human figures made in Gömör County.

There were two major periods of change in folk furniture in our period. At the end of the seventeenth century painted furniture could only be found among a very small section of the peasantry. In the eighteenth century painted furniture and furniture reliant on incised motifs for its decoration existed side by side. Painted carpenter-made furniture made especially for the mar181