Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)
Pages - 155
It is considered as an ideal solution, when a dummy can stand on its own feet. In order to facilitate the dressing, and to make the positure adjustable, flexible, removable arms are needed. It is advantageous when the bust can be positioned vertically and there is a possibility to turn it. Experience shows that kinetic figures are more practical than stiff static ones, which gave a panopticum flavour to the exhibition. In the historical exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum, 79 pieces of woman’s, man’s and children’s dummies were required. 15 of them were supplied with inner reinforcement structures with a goal of presentation of breast-plates and suits of armour. Each dummy needed individual elaboration and had to meet the following requirements: • To conform to the style, cut and measurements of the given object in every respect • All dummies-including to the ones wearing boots - be able to stand without any support • All had to be made of materials free of harmful effect to the costumes • In harmony with the conception of the exhibition (ladies and gentlemen walking on the promenade) all figures had to have heads • Hands, heads, busts have to be movable The task was difficult and not only because of high number of dummies but because of the diversity of the types too. Ready-made tailor's dummies or shopwindow mannequins could be used only in a few cases. Dummies in otherwise very good quality i.e. the ones made in Japan were on one hand too expensive, and on the other hand were unsuitable for putting boots on them. Finally, making use of our earlier experiences and elaborating some new techniques we have produced the dummies ourselves that met our requirements best. We carried out this work with the assistance of a firm manufacturing display dummies and with cooperation of sculptor. We provided the measurements precise of the garments by carving out a pattern from foam to the required size and shape. This model was then used for shaping the final form. For the bodies, as they were smaller in size than today’s average, proportional heads and arms had to be made. The sculptor therefore moulded three types of woman’s and two types of man’s heads together with the commensurate arms. The overlaid with a cotton fabric in a similar way to the bodies. In the full figure man's dummy a metal tube between the hip and breast-parts ensures, that the bust can be turned in several directions and it may be adjusted vertically within 10cms. Solution had to be found for making the boot and shoe-wearing dummies stand on their own feet, without any support. Furthermore to work out mobile feet to the extent that they get through the narrow upper part of the boots. We have solved the supportless stability by the metal structure to be seen in the illustration. The structure is movable downwards, then it gets fixed with a yoke in the inside of the boot. The mechanism was suitable for boots, as well as for shoes. For preventing the metal structure, from coming into contact with the artefact, it was covered with a cotton fabric, which then at the time of display was filled with polystyrene. Another advantage of this was, that the granulates filled the inner space in the boots and shoes just to the required extent. Further problems arose with the dummies with heads, namely the face and the hair style. In the historical exhibition costumes of historic personalities were shown whose portraits were well known to everybody in Hungary. Therefore 155
