Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)
Pages - 51
RESTORATION OF A HABÁN TYPE GLASS JUG Krisztina Dúzs HISTORICAL REVIEW The Habán They are also called new-Christians or Anabaptists who advocated reversion to the ancient Christian beliefs. They have always lived in tight communes according to rigorous regulations. The members of the communes were farmers and craftsmen, who were capable of producing high quality and technically perfect objects in nearly each branch of applied art, based on experiences learned during their wanderings. The members of the movement were recruited from various parts of Europe. Anabaptist production communes survived in the northern part of Old Hungary the longest owing to the strong influence of reformation. Historicism Historicism meant the revival of the styles of former ages in the whole of Europe in the second half of the 19th century, a period when new and exotic cultures were adapted and re-evaluated. Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo came to a new life. Far Eastern and Eastern Asian cultures exercised an increasing influence on European societies. World fairs, organised regularly from 1851, offered a good opportunity for the presentation and advertisement of various new products and innovations. József Schreiber and his nephews' glass factory The Schreiber factory represented itself on these world fairs and won a series of awards and appraisals. It became acknowledged all over Europe. The factory opened branch offices one after the other in various countries of Europe and in America. One of the best equipped glass workshops was founded around the 1850’s under the name Schreiber & Neffen. József Schreiber sen. founded his glass shop in Vienna in 1844, then started his first glass factory together with his son and the Göpfel brothers in 1857. In 1874, they hired count Albert Zay’s Zay-Ugróczi workshop for glass refining. Later it was developed into a glass factory. In 1896, he donated 47 products of the factory to the Museum of Applied Arts on the occasion of its foundation. FUNCTION OF THE OBJECT The object had rather a decorative function than a practical one. It was not made for everyday use but to propagate the Schreiber factory and its products in the Hungarian Industrial Fair. 51
