Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

ANALYSES - GLASS - Edit MESTER - István SZABÓ: Research of medieval glass vessels and glasshauses in Visegrád and Diósjenő

several Hungarian towns, where glasses were manufactured "a la façon de Venice". A great quantity of the aforementioned three groups of glassware (the imported goods, the Venetian imitations, and the individual Hungarian products) were found in the royal palace of Visegrád. These fragments can be dated and reconstructed very well, so they offer a detailed picture of Hungarian glass-trade and glass-making. (GYÜRKY, 1986: 9-132; GYÜRKY, 1991: 11-63.) After the reconstruction of the glass finds from Visegrád we were faced with the following problem. The archaeological methods only helped us determining the age and state of the finds, but they did not answer some important questions concerning glass manufacturing and the recent state of glassware. Therefore, different examinations have been used to find an explanation to the question of why the groups of glass finds had differing structural and chemical corrosion qualities, and whether they came from local workshops or had been imported. A further question was, whether the whereabouts of workshops could be traced back from the characteristics of manufacturing. This is very important, because the research on glass vessels from excavations does not have a great tradition in Hungary. Therefore, numerous problems make the exact determination of glass vessels as well as the creation of a unified typological system difficult (MESTER and SZABÓ, 1997:6-46.) 2. The types of medieval glass vessels in Visegrád The most important types of medieval glass vessels found in the royal palace of Visegrád are shown in Fig. 1. Mostly bottle fragments were recovered from the royal palace. These vessels form two groups: the double conical type, and the Italian „angastare" bottle. In comparison with the glass fragments from bottles imported from Venice, preserved in good quality even today, the imitations were made with thicker walls, their surfaces are often weathered and individually shaped elements can be observed on them. These imitations were, most likely, made in Hungarian workshops. The rest of the bottles and flasks are probably of Hungarian origin, because no comparable imported glass sherd assemblages were found. The quality of these local products was comparable to the quality of imitations, their surfaces being mostly weathered. Locally made glass vessels of better quality appeared only at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Some claret and brown coloured glass jugs were found in Visegrád dating to this period. Prunted beakers were very widely used all over Europe, including Visegrád. There were fragments of small, Venetian prunted beakers made from a clear material, that dated to the 13th to 15th centuries. Other glass fragments of larger green prunted beakers from the 15-16th century were found as well. They were made of green potash glass and mainly manufactured in German and Middle- Eastern workshops. Some original Venetian beakers with mould-blown patterns, ribbed beakers and a German green potash-glass beer-mug are included in our collections as well. In addition to imports, the reproduced shapes of renaissance Venetian goblets are indicative of a Western influence on local glass production. The bowls, cups and jars were manufactured in various shapes and in a wide range of sizes. They were decorated with the mould-blown technique and with applied spiral fibreglass. The most beautiful among these bowls is a Venetian enamel-painted fragment, which was made in the 14

th century. During the course of excavations, some other fragments were also discovered: lamps, rings, bracelets, beads and numerous glass panels and fragments of stained glass. 9H