Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 71-72. (Budapest, 1974)

TANULMÁNYOK - Borsos Béla: Régi pest-budai patikák üvegedényei

Summary The turn of the 1 8th and 19th centuries marks the beginning of significant changes in the development of the Hungarian capital. Due to the ever increasing number of inhabitants and improving sanitary conditions, new and new pharmacies were established. Demands for decorative and modern pharmacy furnishings also increased. The shelves were filled with homogenously formed vessels decorated with the pharmacies' emblems. China ware continued to be ordered from the longestablished Viennese china factories, since — due to the oppressive Austrian industrial policy — Hungarian china industry could unfold only from the middle of the 19th century onwards. Faience, stoneware, tin and wooden jars, however, were supplied mainly by the home industry. It is true above all for glass vessels, which is quite evident, as Hungarian glass making had always been promoted by the abundant occurence of the necessary rawmaterials, above all the extensive beech-woods yielding godd quality fuel for the glassworks. In Budapest some series of glass pharmacy vessels have been preserved which can be more or less safely connected with the establishment of new pharmacies at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The identification, however, involves certain difficulties. The series of vessels often changed hands. It is quite unusual that in some of our long-established pharmacies old, finely decorated pharmacy vessels have been preserved in their original place for centuries. In some cases the name of the pharmacy changed and thus the emblems the vessels bore, lost meaning. The furnishing of the shops were often exchanged, they could eventually get into remote provincial centres from the capital or vice versa. This paper deals with four series of apothecary vessels. All of them were produced towards the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and reveal the stilistic features of the Neo-Classic Late-Baroque — what is also called here in Hungary "zopf" or "Josephinist" style — shaded with late rococo or else already with Neo-Classic elements — depending on the date of production. Two of the four series are of a naiv artistic approach — bearing labels decorated with lion's heads — similar to a human face. Both series are completed with Viennese china jars which might have served as models in the glass-works for the decoration of the corresponding glass vessels. The first china series was presumably produced around 1780, while the second one —• as its mark of date shows it — between 1820 and 1827. Unfortunately only this later série can be with full certitude identified with the original furnishings of the "Golden Lion" founded in 1794. In case of the earlier series dating from the end of the 18th century two pharmacies can be thought of. One is the above mentioned "Golden Lion", the other one is a pharmacy of the same name, founded in 1786 and called later "Holy Ghost". In both cases the Hungarian origin of the glass vessels is quite probable. The sign on the third série of vessels is a crown. It must have belonged — in all probability — to the "Hungarian Crown" Pharmacy founded in 1790 in the city of Pest. But we my also think of the "Hungarian Crown" in Óbuda which was opened already in 1767, or furthermore — in a little likeli-hood — of the "Hungarian King" founded in 1804. These glass vessels — without any porcelain jars in this case —• cannot be regarded with full certainty to be products of Hungarian origin. The last of the glass pharmacy vessels is a série of beautiful opaline glass vessels with lids. We may wiht absolute certainty identify them with the furnishings of the