Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29/3. (2009)
Soós Zoltán: Coat of Arms Representations ont he Stove Tiles of the Târgu Mureş Medieval Franciscan Friary
Coat of Arms Representations on the Stove Tiles of the Tárgu Мищ Medieval Franciscan Friary 201 preserved but unfortunately we have no precise information about were exactly they were used or displayed within the friary. This is true in the case of the stove tiles as well. First of all in the demolition layers one can only find the broken or damaged tiles from several stoves. Although we know that a late medieval stove is composed of five or six type of tiles we do not know what kind of tiles belonged to certain stoves. In several cases we have only a few types of tiles from a certain stove therefore their reconstruction is difficult. In the filling layers we identified at least thirty types of stove tiles. From a large number of tile types only in the case of few could we identify precisely that they belonged to the same stove. We.found only one garbage pit where the material was identified as belonging to mainly one particular stove. The pit did not contain the whole stove only those elements which were damaged or replaced during the reparation. Very probably the craftsmen could not replace the broken tiles when the stove was rebuilt and it would have been too expensive to order the same stove tiles from a distant workshop. The easiest and cheapest solution was to rebuild a smaller stove and the broken tiles were thrown out. This process was reflected by the content of the pit. Basically we have elements from every stove part, from the lower part, middle part and upper ornaments. Based on these fragments we could reconstruct the whole stove, but more importantly it helps us identify the tiles belonging to this stove. The stove identified in the mentioned pit (C, Cl, Gl) was a high quality item composed in a high proportion of glazed tiles. The tiles had a uniform green glaze, of course having different nuances of green. The stove was composed of tiles presenting biblical scenes, floral ornaments and most of the tiles belonged to the so called bowl type. From this latter we identified two types, the glazed ones represented eighty percent and the simple ceramic bowl tiles were around twenty percent. The major importance of the find was that we could reconstruct one type of stove built within the friary. Based on the material found in the C, Cl and in the cellar we could say that more than seventy percent of the late medieval stove tiles were glazed, twenty five percent had engobe paint and only a small part representing five percent had a simple ceramic surface. This meant that most of the stoves were made of high quality glazed tiles and there was at least one stove from engobe painted tiles. The simple ceramic tiles were usually combined with green glazed tiles. A large number of the glazed tiles had its non glazed equivalent, therefore by combining them parts of the stove became bichrome. Approximately twenty percent of the glazed tiles had polychrome paint; Green, yellow, brown and grey colors and their nuances are the most often used. We do not exactly know yet how the polychrome glazed tiles were combined with other tiles. The last group of stove tiles had engobe paint, which usually had two colors, white and red. These types of stoves were wide spread in the urban areas but they occur in the manors of the small and middle nobility as well in rural areas. Based on the stove tiles’ color we may say that we have three major types: high quality stoves with polychrome and green glazed tiles, the second type is represented by stoves with green glazed tiles combined with non glazed tiles and the third type is represented by the relatively wide spread engobe painted stove tiles. It is important to classify the stove tiles and stove types because it helps to identify the origin of stoves tiles with coat of arm representation. It is also important to match the tiles with heraldic symbols and the stoves because this will offer precious information about the status and wealth of the donor and about the wealth of the
