Veres Gábor: A népi bútorzat története Északkelet-Magyarországon - Studia Agriensia 28. (Eger, 2008)
THE HISTORY OF FOLK FURNITURE IN NORTHEASTERN HUNGARY
Although our examination of folk furniture has placed its emphasis firmly on peasant culture, it was nevertheless considered necessary to examine the way furniture was used among the lesser nobility as well. There were parts of northeastern Hungary where the lower nobility made up a substantial proportion of the local population. For the majority their standard of living was no better than that of the local peasantry, their only privilege being that of being spared the need to pay tax. In Gömör County in particular we found several chests which contained inscriptions referring to noble ownership, despite the fact that their style and manner of decoration corresponded with those found on the chests used by the local peasantry. The making of furniture was carried out by trained craftsmen, carpenters, the majority of whom either worked within the guild system in one of the region’s towns, or as a provincial master elsewhere. Bolstered by the presence of the largest number of provincial masters the guild in Miskolc was able to boast the largest membership. The study looks at all the surviving documentary evidence relating to the cabinet-making guilds, paying particular attention to the similarities and differences existing across the region. The regulations applying to the way the guilds operated and the manner in which apprentices became masters can be seen in the privileges and articles. The training consisted primarily in becoming proficient in the skills of fashioning wood, joining, assembling and finishing. Apprentices also had to prove their proficiency in furniture painting. None of the official documents in the towns, however, tell us whether this latter skill was a key component of the training. In those towns where guilds were present the cabinet-makers either worked to order, or produced for the market place. The former were often known as “German cabinet-makers” and the latter “Hungarian cabinet-makers”, owing to the fact that cabinet-makers working to order were making furniture for the urban bourgeoisie, many of whom spoke German as their mother tongue, particularly in the eighteenth century. The folk furniture was made by cabinetmakers producing for the market, who made up about half of all the cabinetmakers in existence according to the records of the Miskolc guild. This is a figure which was probably equally true for the other towns in the region. It wasn’t necessary therefore for all cabinet-makers to be familiar with the arts of floral decoration and furniture painting. Our research shows that not all cabinet-makers producing directly for the market were able to paint furniture in the style favoured by a particular ethnographical area.The floral compositions found on folk furniture are invariably the work of a female hand, fre186
