Budapest Régiségei 38. (2004) – Tanulmányok dr. Gerő Győző tiszteletére

B. Nyékhelyi Dorottya: Feliratos török talpas tál a budavári Szent György térről 133-152

FELIRATOS TÖRÖK TALPAS TÁL A BUDAVÁRI SZENT GYÖRGY TÉRRŐL FOOTED BOWL FROM SZE: Between 1998 and 2000 we conducted archaeological investigations in the foreground of the mediaeval royal palace of Buda, in the southern part of the Castle area, on the northern side of Lovarda köz, at 4 Szent György Square and at 2 Szent György Street. In the southern part of the Teleki palace a building from the Middle Ages, consisting of several rooms was excavated that had undergone the recapture of the town in 1686. In a modern period rolom in the back part of the building, towards the town wall an almost quadrangular trace of digging was to be seen which extended even under the wall. In the course of opening its deepest layers the fragments of the green-glazed, ornamented, inscribed Turkish footed bowl came to light which the present paper is going to deal with. The bottom of the pit was at 149.86 ms above sea level. The footed bowl was made on a wheel from yellowish-red clay and it was burnt at its mouth grey-red. Above the white, thinly strained, sand-slimmed engobe it is green-glazed from in- and outside. On the outer surface of the footring the glaze had run at some places, the white engobe is visible under it. At other parts there is no engobe on the bowl, therefore the green colour is darker. The deep, spacious body of the old-fashioned shape, imitating a metal bowl is standing on a low, ringed foot. The main part of the footring is decorated by straight cuts. The rim is standing straight and it is articuleted by a double groove. It is fitted together from several pieces, and it had to be completed. The outer side of the rim and the footring is decorated by vertical, zig-zag scratches the elaboration of which is not regular. The inscriptions on the body of the bowl are separated from each other by delicately elaborated, scratched carnations, tulips and margarets(?) and some other superficial plant motifs. Between two f lowerheads a name can also be read. It is interesting to observe on the representation of the plant groups the kind of methods the maker used to reach a more plastique effect. Some plants were scratched into the clay with a single movement. Delicate elaboration can be observed on the carnation and the tulip motifs. With the first ones the effect was obtained by scratching the pattern into the surface. In the case of the tulips it was either the middle of the flower left swelling or the petals. The maker of the bowl also played with the colours on the surface of the vessel, as the glazing was put either on the engobe or on the parts GYÖRGY SQUARE, BUDAPEST without engobe. The variety of roughly made and delicately elaborated flower patterns, the contrasts of convex and concave and the alteration of the darker and lighter parts of glazing together result in plasticity. The glazing of the inner side - similarly to the outer side - has cracked as a spider's net. Here you can only find two flower patterns among the inscriptions. The footring is separated from the body of the vessel by a thin groove. On the inner side you can read a quotation from the Koran: a blessing. The nearest analogues of our footed bowl have been found in the middle part of Szent György Square and in the course of the excavations of the royal palace. In the kiln excavated at Szent Tamás Hill, Esztergom fragments of two semi-finished inscribed footed bowls were unearthed. A third, green glazed footed bowl, dating from the second half of the 16

th century, found in the corridor of the palace of Esztergom could have been made here, too. The form of the latter one is similar to that of the one from Szent György Square. One of the semi-finished footed bowls discovered in the workshop at Szent Tamás Hill also resembles our piece in its shape, the other footed bowl, on the other hand, is different in its form and the outer side of its foot is decorated with carnations and tulips whereas on the inner surface there are scratched flower patterns. The potters' workshop of Esztergom ceased possibly at the end of the 16

th century After finding the footed bowl at Szent György Square, Buda, I showed it to Győző Gerő who identified it as a piece from the workshop at Szent Tamás Hill, Esztergom. However, the analyse of the inscription seems to contradict: it suggests that our piece could have been made in the third third of the 17

th century. This supposition is not opposed by the circumstances of finding it at the excavation. There were three inscribed fragments found in Buda, two of which is apparently similar to each other. As Gerő says, the workshop at Szent Tamás Hill in Esztergom could have been destroyed between 1594 and 1605. The Turks constructed a fortress here, so it is very unlikely that they would have reconstructed the potters' workshop. Therefore, the question arises whether the pieces found in Buda could have been made in the workshop of Esztergom. At the same time, there is no data relating to a potters' workshop in Buda. It is also questionable if the insdcribed footed bowl found in the western part of Szent György 137