H. Szilasi Ágota - Várkonyi Péter - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Császi Irén (szerk.): Agria 51. (Az egri Dobó István Vármúzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2018)
Zábrátzky Éva: Bakó Ferenc a kézművesség és népi háziipar kutatója
Éva Zábrátzky FERENC BAKÓ, RESEARCHER OF HANDICRAFT AND THE COTTAGE INDUSTRY Ferenc Bakó, director of the Dobó István Castle Museum and the Heves County Museum Organisation is primarily known as a researcher of folk architecture, however his achievements in the study of folk customs, ethic groups, handicraft and the cottage industry are also noteworthy. From very early on he became interested in the culture ofhomecraft artisans and craftsmen, which is partly due to his family background, since his father was a hat-maker. Handicraft artefacts, collected by him, are still kept in the Ethnographic Museum. (Comb-maker craft in Kiskunhalas, hat-maker’s workshop in Békés...) In 1949-50, as a member of a group of researchers, he visited Tiszaugar to study the lifestyle of various handicraftsmen from artisan food makers to Gypsy blacksmiths, examining the reasons that led to changes in their economic and social roles. After the second world war it was crucial to study this social stratum, because their role was taken over by the manufacturing industry and the cooperatives, so Bakó was able to give a voice to the representatives of a disappearing world. In 1950, commissioned by the Ethnographic Museum, he visited the Székely settlers in Kakasd, originally from Bukovina, to explore the lifestyles and tools of the fur-dressers and tailors. This work has not yet been published. The manuscript is kept in the Dobó István Castle Museum. Ferenc Bakos research always focused on the surroundings of Eger and the Palóc region. An important product made in the Bükk Mountains was quicklime. Bakó documented and published in detail the various work processes of the lime-kiln workers, including the way they were organised and how they sold the lime their produced. Given the fact that lime is an important building material, this topic was a step towards the research of folk architecture. Carvings made by shepherds is a special area of handicraft. Bakó purchased a large number of artefacts from the shepherd carvers of Heves County in the 1950s, the motifs of which were recorded on a filmstrip, entitled „Faragványmotívumok” (“Carving Motifs”). Notes on the ethnographic collections by Ferenc Bakó, kept in the archive ofthe Dobó István Castle Museum, include numerous valuable data on the various crafts and his interest was also manifested in the acquisition of artefacts. Bakos research and artefact collection have laid the foundations of and continue to shape ethnographic research and the image of the exhibitions in Heves County. 84
