Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 11. (Budapest, 1968)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Vera: Textilek az indiai gyűjteményben
TEXTILES IN THE INDIAN COLLECTION In the collection of the Indian department the textiles are represented fairly well, although the founder of the Museum, Francis Hopp, bought not more than 7 of them on his visits to India. In the 1930 OS in consequence of Imre Schwaiger's repeated donations the collection was increased with pieces of good quality. It grew considerable size in 1941 by purchasing Francis Zajtis' textilecollection consisting of 140 pieces. Unfortunately this rich material which included mainly embroidery was badly damaged during the siege of Budapest in 1944-45. Since the end of World-War II, since 1950 it has been increased by regular purchases on behalf of the Government. There were further donations, too, but these form a minor part of the entire collection. Today the number of the Indian textiles in the Museum is 226, divided as follows: 11 carpets and carpet fragments, 77 woven fabrics, 86 embroidery, 15 fabrics decorated by different dyeing processes, 17 hand-printed and 21 machine printed calico pieces. We have got exact records telling about the way the different articles got into our collection. But — apart from rare exceptions — we have got scarce information regarding the j)lace and the time of their manufacture, and even regarding the area of collection. The situation is worsened by the lack of comparative material and by the fact that certain textile-manufacturing and decorating processes have been preserved for long, moreover, some of the handi craft embroideries and dyeing processes came into use and vague at places in India different from the original ones. After having mentioned our difficulties, which render it difficult to investigate a considerable part of the collection, this time we make an attempt to give a brief account of the collection by introducing at least its outlines and describing only some outstanding pieces. The Indian textiles of our Museum are unpublished owing to the above mentioned difficulties. The time-range of the collection is uneven. As long as the XIX th century is represented by rich brocade, silk, embroidery and calico series, there are only a few Kashmir shawl-fragments and some Mogul carpet-fragments dating from the XVII. th —XVIII th centuries respectively. This unevenness is the consequence of the fact that there w T as no possibility for purchasing early objects and for synthetic assembling. Since Indian textiles are not too well-known in Hungary we make an attempt to give a brief account of the origin and history of the different species. This will make it comprehensible how the different decorating processes and sorts of textiles became popular outside the Indian Subcontinent in Asia and in Europe and had a great influence there, as is known.
