Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 3. (Budapest, 1975)

KOÓS, Judith: Some Hungarian masters of the goldsmith's art of the Art Nouveau

JUDITH KOOS SOME HUNGARIAN MASTERS OF THE GOLDSMITH'S ART OF THE ART NOUVEAU After the discontinuance of the guild system in Hungary (1872), the formation of the Industrial Companies and Industrial Associations was not merely an organizational question, because these organizations also mark a new relation between society and the goldsmith. This new relation was in a considerable degree determined by the spreading of the manufactured metal and precious metal objects, on the one hand, and by the widespread introduction of those social customs — like the various new forms of smoking, of the consumption of tea and coffee, as well as of catering —, on the other hand, which equally influenced the functions and forms of the articles of usage. With these customs we can also range those more recent communal establishments (cafés, hotels, restaurants, etc.), which also raised new functional demands concerning the articles of everyday usage. It is self-evident that all these — and also the circumstances not discussed here now — have influenced the new industrial art. Besides all these, however, also such functional and technical traditions of goldsmith's art have been £>reserved, like the jewels. In the latter ones that change can also be measured which has taken place in connection with the new social demands, like for example the culture of dressing. Thus, in our age the processing of precious metals bifurcates into two directions, viz., on the one hand it becomes the product of manufacturing industry, which in certain cases can also attain a higher artistic level, and on the other hand, it remains the activity of certain goldsmiths concentrated in the framework of the Industrial Company mentioned above, or of individual masters engaged in the different branches of goldsmith's art. Among these goldsmiths rank first of all Samu Hibján, Oszkár Tarján (Huber), Károly Herpka, as well as the workshop of the Egger brothers working in the spirit of historism, and also some other goldsmiths following the latter trend. Among the factory products, from the viewpoint of the artistic level, we have to mention the products of the Szandrik factory, the Hungarian Silver and Metal Ware Factory and the Bachruch factory. In connection with the enamel art of the articles of personal use the goldsmith's and enamelling workshop of Gyula Rappaport has a special significance. The masters and workshopsenumerated have become significant for us first of all because they represent prominent and characteristic artistic aspirations in the stylistic tendencies and different trends of