Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 2001
Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
Júlia Kisfaludi: The 1838 Decree on Uniforms We have a document in our collection, dating from 1838, related to our oldest uniform. However, we have no information on when it became museum property or where it came from. A decision, taken on December 19, 1837 gave rise to a high-level court chamber decree, numbered Z. 54281/2296 and issued on January 6, 1938, which specified the ceremonious and everyday uniforms to be worn by postal carriage staff employed by Imperial and Royal Postmasters and Stablemasters. Sadly, the drawings attached to the decree have been lost. However, the postal collection at Vienna’s Technisches Museum does have two illustrations, depicting the ceremonious and everyday uniforms mentioned in the 1838 decree. The decree includes a list of the materials and accessories needed to make the uniform specified, and also notes the places where they could be procured. It specifies the prices of the necessary materials in standard script, golden forints and krajcárs, and the amounts in yards. In some cases it gives the name and address of the merchant or supplier of the materials. The other side of the three-page list offers suggestions on how to care for the lacquered felt hat. Inventory number 90.14 1-2 is a uniform. The jacket is black broadcloth and tailored like a tuxedo, with flame-red cuffs, and the hat is black, wide, three-cornered, and made of broadcloth with silver trim. This is the oldest item in the uniform and textile collection. Its origins are unknown, but we do know that it was on display at the postal pavilion of the millennium exhibition of 1896. Volume eight of the publication on the millennium exhibition includes studies on the postal pavilion, where one illustration portrays mannequins dressed in the 18th century uniform. All postal history items collected for the millennium exhibition were transferred to the Transport Museum and it is believed that the uniform was among them. The first acquisitions registry in our archives shows a transfer of artefacts from the Transport Museum on August 22, 1945. Included are a broadcloth postal service jacket and a black hat, which we believe to be these items. We cannot be completely certain since the acquisitions registry has very little data. It gives only the type of item, but no description. The archived documents do not explain why the uniform was overlooked at the time of the 1983 inventory, and why it only was registered in 1990. A comparison of the description contained in the 1838 decree and the uniform tells us the following things. The jacket with inventory number 90.14.1 is identical to the everyday uniform jacket specified by the decree. Its buttons, portraying eagles, are original, but it lacks an armband, which should include a metal coat-of-arms. The hat, inventory number 90.14.2, is identical to the ceremonious hat described in the decree. The 1838 decree was renewed by a decree dated December 6, 1855. The next measure on service uniforms for postal carriage workers was dated July 24,1874, and pertained to a Royal Hungarian Post Office that had become independent in the interim. So, the decree being presented was officially valid until 1874, but we can presume that no uniforms using Austrian colours were made after a compromise agreement reached in 1867, and at most, employees continued to wear existing ones. Detailed study of the document has assisted us in determining the ages of the oldest 200
