J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)

ESSAYS-LECTURES - B. Borsos : Early Hungarian Spa Glasses (in English)

EARLY HUNGARIAN SPA GLASSES* by BÉLA BORSOS A few years ago in the Museum of Industrial Arts, Budapest, the Hungarian water cure glasses were represented by only a few examples. Since then a wide interest arose in this close group of spa glasses, which, in spite of its simplicity and—we must frankly confess—frequent artlessness, is of high scientific importance. In our discussion we deal only with the early water cure glasses in their relation to the glass product of the early 19th century. The examination of this interconnection perhaps contributes to solving some interesting problems. Spa glasses are encountered for the first time in the middle of the eighteenth century when the enjoyment of the spas was generally limited to the wealthy families who heeded Rousseau's call for a "return to nature." They became common during the Empire period and reached a peak of popularity and full artistic development by the middle of the 19th century. Most of the health resorts which became fashionable toward the end of the eighteenth century were located in Germany, Bohemia and Austria, in the mountains where beech wood, a prime source of fuel for glassmaking, grew plentifully. Glass-cutting and engraving schools were located in the spas, and important glass factories were often located nearby as at Marienbad, Franzensbad, Teplitz and Karlsbad, which had a renowned engraving school staffed by outstanding engravers. Together, these places both supplied the local market and satisfied the visitors' desire for souvenirs. By this time the more or less pompous and complicated engraved decorations of the glasses were seldom made in the glasshouses. In this period the glasshouses developed step by step from manufactures into "factories" and the glass-blowers gradually became separated from the engravers considered now as artists. From now on the glass factories produced only crude, thick glass material to the cutters and engravers. The artist who endowed the objects with cut and engraved ornaments thus determining their character and value, was working distant from the glass factories in his municipal shop and his work reflected the taste, influence and claims of his surroundings. * This article is an alternative version of the following publication: B. Borsos : Hungarian Spa Glasses of the Early 19th Century. —lournal of Glass Studies. The Corning Museum of Glass, New York. Vol. XI, 1969. pp. 105 — 108. 163