Veres Gábor: A népi bútorzat története Északkelet-Magyarországon - Studia Agriensia 28. (Eger, 2008)
THE HISTORY OF FOLK FURNITURE IN NORTHEASTERN HUNGARY
Bélapátfalva and Mikófalva lying on the northern approaches of the Bükk, and Szuhahuta in the Mátra Hills. In the latter case, the disappearance of the glassworks led the Slovak population to make wooden utensils and furniture instead. At several points the study turns to the ethnic background of the furniture and its makers. The incised furniture in Gömör County for instance was made by both Hungarians and Slovaks. The written sources from second half of the eighteenth century describe the two biggest manufacturing centres Kiéte (Kyjatica, Slovakia) and Barbaret as being Slovak villages. In this case the question of ethnic identity is not particularly important owing to the fact that the carved incised chest could be found in the domestic culture of both populations. In the case of the Szuhahuta wood-carvers, on their own admittance they learned how to make wooden tools from the people of Gyöngyössolyomos, and armchairs from the local Hungarian millers. For the spread of painted furniture it was necessary to pay greater attention to the target market. The Gömör manufacturers supplied markets and clients beyond the county’s borders. In the eighteenth century there were many strands linking the styles of painted furniture made by the craftsmen of Gömör County and Miskolc. As late as the mid-eighteenth century we meet the work of the Gömör painted furniture-makers in churches throughout northern Hungary. From the mid-century onwards, however, it is the cabinet-makers of Miskolc who attain prominence. Those who had started as provincial masters or apprentices for the guild in Kassa (Kosice, Slovakia) had by the end of the century a guild of their own. The colours and motifs used in the painted liturgical furniture also had an effect on folk furniture. The beginning of the nineteenth century, however, witnessed a substantial change in style. Research has tended to suggest that it all started in Gömör County in the area around Rimaszombat (Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia). An analysis of the most recent sources available to us prove rather that the Rimaszombat II. style didn’t amount to a complete change as old colours and techniques continued to be in demand. From our research it has been possible to conclude instead that although a new style did emerge in Rimaszombat based on marbling effects and a distinctive bouquet design, it prompted the more significant changes in domestic folk culture of Borsod and Heves Counties, that came out of the carpentry centres of Miskolc, Mezőkövesd, Eger and Gyöngyös. The designs, which had by no means been slavishly dependent on those coming from Rimaszombat, had within a few decades become immediately distinguishable. 185
