Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 6. (Székelyudvarhely, 2007)
Kiss Hédy: A Székely Nemzeti Múzeumban őrzött zászlók állapotfelmérése
and counted the insects and their enemies. Paper sealing: wooden elements that seemed to be attacked by insects were covered with tapestry and the emergence holes were counted every week. Light-traps: from April to August, plastic and metal tripods with a bulb of X= 400nm wave length, two sticking foils, or a local light source with sticking traps placed on the ground. The yearly counting of all the wood deterioration organisms. Sticking traps: Sticking foils that can be bought in shops, or cardboards treated with special insect adhesives. Counting of the insects once a week or a month. Hanging-scaffolds and boxes: horizontally hanging wooden ladders or boxes. Checking once a week, periodical counting and grouping by sex. Comparison with paper seals. Traps with pheromone and extract materials: application of commercial pheromones at book-worms and extract from wood deteriorated with fungi at death watch beetle on the first occasion. Regular counting once a week or a month. Evaluation of the wood dust with macroscopic observation. Monitoring helped to determine the centres of the infected areas, the times of emergence, the routes of expansion of the marked insects, the yearly periodical changes of predator and prey, and that the females of the death watch beetles emerge sooner than the males. We could demonstrate the enticing effect of light sources, the use of emergence holes by various individuals in and out of season and we could assess the paces of emergence rates. Monitorings revealed the superficially executed handicraft, and the posterior monitorings showed the success of treatments. Several of the results founded the purposeful application of the treatment methods and/or the setting up of traps with pheromone and extract materials, and experiments with biological enemies. The focuses of the introduced measures were shifted to hot air treatment at a controlled moisture content and microwave heat treatments applied on complete buildings or on certain parts of buildings. They are tested with the help of industrial partners and perfected regarding the determination of the minimal temperature, energy consumption and the protection of the environment. Since 1999, we have followed the successes of other treatment methods like gassing with carbon dioxide, methyl-bromide and sulphurile-difluorite and the use of heat treatment chambers in the case of movable objects. At the same time, we continue the checking of the results of the treatment of test logs containing the various physiological stages of the main wood pests, the house longhorn beetle, the death watch beetle, the book-worm and the powderpost beetle with various disinfecting methods using various measuring instruments. The test logs are prepared proportionate with the architectural structures or the pieces of furniture, they are treated and evaluated from the respect of the death of the test animals. The conclusions drawn from the observations called attention various defects like insufficient treatment parameters, weak points of buildings, insufficient heat distribution, differences in solidity etc. and they supported the necessity of applying differentiated parameters depending on the type of the insects and their physiological stages. The experiments supported the necessity of keeping the norm, which specified a treatment temperature of 55°C for at least 1 hour. Dr. Uwe Noldt Biologist Bundesforschungsanstalt für Holzwirtschaft Institut für Holzbiologie und Holzschutz Hamburg István DEMETER - Zoltán MIKLÓS Restoration of a Székely gate from the beginning of the 19th century The stereotypes repeated about certain historical regions or population groups can become so generally accepted that they are passed from one generation to the next as facts alienated from the truth lying behind them. Nostalgia felt to the mythical past has been one of the specific traits of the modem aspect of origin like the theory of the Hun origin of the Székely and the idea of the double Conquest independent of the historic realities. Similarly, the idea that the so-called Székely gates came from the east (China) still has supporters. Travellers of the past centuries and later ethnographic descriptions reported about the large, finely ornamented gates and often even their origin was suggested. The recent paper does not intend to go into details regarding the problem of origin. Our topic is the documentation of the restored object, the determination of the type and the description of the condition and the process of the treatment. The gate marked with the date 1816, which stands at the entrance to the ethnographic exhibition of the Haáz Rezső Museum in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc) titled “Flowers of Székely Land”, was originally the entrance to the land of the Vajda family in Farcád village. The land allotment has changed so significantly since its erection that its function had already ceased when the museum bought it. The gate belongs among the Urvarhelyszék gates of the old type with carved posts. A professional “gate carver” of the region must have prepared it. The basic raw material was oak. The originally pine tile roof was replaced with a tin roof some time before its collection. Three posts (gate feet) supported the gate enclosing the foot gate and the large gate. The terminal of the gradually thinning convex body of the post was decorated with an engraved tulip pattem and a motive of tulips, leaves and tendrils ornamented the lower flat element of flowery outlines of the head. Two spiral motives compose the middle section, while the post ornament tapers in the shape of a five-lobed palmette. A horizontal beam projecting on both sides connects the posts. It was widened with decoratively cut lines from the posts upwards providing a broader support to the dovecot and the roof. A carving of leaves and tendrils projects from the horizontal beam in the middle of the arch of the cart gate. The quadrangular 84
