Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)
Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)
In the third show-case we present the products of the faience - and stoneware factories established in the first half of the 19th century. Due to the lower costs of production, stone-ware, the discovery of Wedgewood, the English ceramist (1765-1768), spread soon all over the country. A number of stone-ware factories were established : e. g. at Körmöcbánya (Kremnica, Czechoslovakia) in 1800, at Kassa (Kosice, Czechoslovakia) in 1801, at Pápa in 1802, at Muránÿ (Murán, Czechoslovakia), at Igló (Spisská Nova Ves, Czechoslovakia) in 1812, Rozsnyó (Roznava, Czechoslovakia) in 1810, at Miskolc in 1832, at Apátfalva in 1843, etc. The old faience factories changed over to the production of stoneware vessels: the Holies factory already in 1786, the Tata factory in 1824 and the Buda factory in 1809. The show-case presents the pharmacy jars of the above mentioned Hungarian factories in order to represent the development of Hungarian industry at the beginning of the 19th century. China-ware (porcelain) invented in 1717 appeared to be rather expensive even at the end of the 18th century, only the higher nobility around the Court could afford it. The attention of the rich bourgeoisie - the owners of the pharmacies included - was focused on whiteglazed vessels made of opal glass or milk-glass which had the effect of porcelain but it was much cheaper. Hungarian glass works, e. g. that of Körmöcbánya, produced opaline glass jars. Two beautiful examples are exhibited deriving from the beginning of the 18th century. Though not of Hungarian origin, mention should be made of a finely decorated, precious AltWien (old-Vienna) porcelain jar (Sorgenthal period, from 1784 until the middle of the 19th century) from the Arany Oroszlán ("Golden Lion") Pharmacy in Pest. Together with a glass bottle of the same decoration it refers to the fact that the apothecarians of the capital could already afford to buy expensive Viennese porcelain.
