Mikó Árpád – Verő Mária - Jávor Anna szerk.: Mátyás király öröksége, Késő reneszánsz művészet Magyarországon (16–17. század) 2. kötet (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2008/4)

The English Summary of Volumes I—II

ordered items formed a higher proportion. Here, the buyer acted more as a patron than a customer. The third source of aristocratic metalware in the Kingdom was the work of goldsmiths working directly for the lord, in his castle. These craftsmen mostly produced smaller items to order of the lord. It may be deduced from the sources that most jewellery, clocks and small galanterie items were procured by personal purchase. Silver vessels (tableware, liturgical vessels) often involved a person commissioned by the court or a permanent factor working at the place of production. Purchases accounted for a much greater quantity of goods than direct employment of craftsmen. Hungarian aristocrats were also drawn into the great European currents in purchasing their luxury goods on equal terms with many other "consumers". There was a similar influence on the structure of manufacture by direct employment. Their demands and the objects they used followed the main developments observed everywhere in the Empire, so that they built up possessions of the same types found everywhere in Europe. In the 16

th and first third of the 17

th century, Nuremberg had particularly strong trade links with Hungary, and Augsburg became increasingly important during the 17

th century. In addition to the merchant houses, the jubilérs or silver merchants made their appearance in both the Kingdom of Hungary and Transylvania in the second half of the 16

th century. Transactions involving them concerned mostly jewellery in Transylvania and silver vessels in the Kingdom. Despite their name, they were probably not active craftsmen but merchants of finished artefacts and precious stones and pearls. The Transylvania sources in particular suggest that they were operators of sophisticated businesses, rather than simple itinerant peddlers. They also bought precious metals in the western lands. Those who lived in Transylvania or the north of the Kingdom brought their precious metals to sell to the mints. Hungarian 17

th-century written sources also make frequent mention of merchants from Frankfurt, Berlin and Poland. The wealthiest and most powerful nobles in the Kingdom also appeared in Augsburg as direct patrons and customers. The purchase and transport of table silverware, after the medieval period, was no longer the subject of a direct customer-silversmith relation. The courts of Hungarian aristocrats and prelates demanded large quantities of bowls, plates and drinking vessels. Hungarian aristocrats usually bought grosserie directly from the makers rather than through merchants. They also patronised Augsburg silver- and goldsmiths through orders for more personal items, closer to art patronage than purchase of vaisselle grossier. The Esterházy, Erdődy and Nádasdy families employed several members of the Drentwett dynasty of metal work craftsmen. Several of the products survive from the Esterházy and Erdődy treasuries. Transylvania A distinctive feature of the courts of some Transylvania princes was a system of employment of urban craftsmen. This arrangement, was a special version of the luxury goods mechanism of medieval courts, and was somewhat archaic in the 17

th century. They became the principal customers of city craftsmen, but this did not bring a change to the craftsmen's status or the guild structure or even the relationship with craftsmen employed in the court. The two systems carried on side by side. The other common feature of the governing structure was the lack of a distinction between what belonged to the prince as a private person and what belonged to the state : members of the prince's family, high state dignitaries, retainers and other great landowners of the Principality were customers on similar terms as the prince himself. A predominantly 17

th century phenomenon was princes' regularly employment of the same craftsman to allocate raw materials, supervise manufacture, measure up and check the finished goods and make delivery. Transylvanian and Romanian princes frequently hired craftsmen to work locally, as did the higher figures of the court and members of the prince's family. This work was also arranged via the city elders. In addition to craftsmen working in the city, all princes employed "court" craftsmen, who received payment in kind, prebend or cash. Very little is known of Transylvanian princes' court craftsmen, and even their nationality is uncertain. During the reign of Zsigmond Báthory, several craftsmen are mentioned as owning houses in Gyulafehérvár and being raised to the nobility for their services. These included Benedek Ötvös and Mátyás Ötvös. The court craftsmen to the princes of the first half of the 17

th century were mostly foreign. The articles of the Debrecen goldsmith's guild, dating from 1600, mention goldsmiths who learnt their trade in "in a castle in some dubious place" rather than in a place with a proper guild. The rules were dismissive of such characters, placing them in the same category as unskilled botchers. Craftsmen working in "dubious places" were those who took service in some landed noble's castle, usually for some specific job. It was those working in the border defensive castles (végvár) which caused most irritation to the honest guild craftsmen. It was the price of jewels which fundamentally determined who could own them. Owners of jewels fell into well delineated groups. The gold artefacts in the inventories of commoners and the lower nobility were fewer, with fewer stones, so that their value was well below those of the aristocrats. Commoners' inventories rarely listed gold jewellery other than rings. Jewellery owned by market town burghers in the occupied territory consisted of buckles and belts. Commoners in the Kingdom and the Principality also owned chains and pendants of widely varying weights. Aristocrats' jewellery was almost exclusively gold, with a value typically several times that of gold pieces owned by any lesser noble. The weight-price-rank triangle also, in a peculiar way, defined the appearance of early modern age jewellery. Certain designs and decorations, and consequently certain types of jewellery, appeared only in the highest price categories. The nyakbavető (large-link chain reaching down to the chest), mentioned often until the mid- 17

th century, was one of the most expensive forms of jewellery. Jewellery worn as part of women's costume was more similar to types common elsewhere in Europe. An Austrian-South German category may be identified in women's jewellery, embracing the kind of jewellery worn in court circles in Hungary and, with some variations, in Transylvania. There were differences between the two lands, one possible reason being the geographic position of the Principality. A contrary influence came via the two "foreign"