Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

New acquisitions 1998

ARMCHAIRS Each stands on straight prismatic legs, each on a wooden caster, connected by turned stretchers on all four sides. Of the legs the first two lean out to either side above the square-shaped seat and end in a part embellished in the Szekler fashion above the horizontal arm supports. (The Szeklers are a Hungarian ethnic group in eastern Transylvania, numbering about a million people.) In the middle of the openwork splat there are shepherd figures in traditional attire leaning on their staves; the toprail is carved with a water buffalo head (L. Bubalus buffalus, bred even today in Transylvania) on either side and with two ram's heads in the middle. CHAIRS Each stands on four octagonal legs tapering towards the bottom and having a narrow nack at the top. The top surface of the square-shaped wooden seat is contoured to follow the lines of the body, as on Windsor chairs. On each sides of the toprail of the shield-shaped back support, which is set at an angle to the seat and attached to it by mortise and tenon joints, is the head of a fable animal; in the middle is an aperture for lifting the chair. TABLE Stands on twin gate legs, attached to a central metal bar. When these are folded inwards, the two rounded table ends fold down. The sides of the gate legs of the table when folded have carved embellishments: on the one lovers with a calf, and a king figure with a lion on the other. Recessed into the table is a carved embellishment: a shepherd sitting by a camp-fire telling a story. Around him are animal figures in a round field, with the inscription "VÓT ECCŐ EGY KIRAL" ("ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A KING"), a frequent opening sentence in folktales in the Szekler dialect. Purchased from a private Budapest collection, 1998 Inv. No.: 98.157.1-2.158.1-2.98.159 Ede Thoroezkai Wigand designed his first creations in Historicist (Revival) styles, taking part in the design of the Gothic Revival Budapest Parliament building. As an independent designer, he broke with the practice of bringing back the styles of the past, and as a teacher he taught in the spirit of Art Nouveau. He left Budapest for the Transylvanian city of Marosvásárhely (after 1920 Tirgu Mures, Romania). He conducted research into the ethnography of the Szekler region (Székelyföld), investigating and publishing Hungarian folk architecture, way of life, intellectual culture, and folk art. He drew on the findings of his collecting tours in his work as an architect and furniture