Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 24. (Budapest, 2006)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK: Exibition of Oriental Arts, 1929 - Collecting Chinese artefacts in Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s
the catalogue of the exhibition." In 1914 he published Ferenc Hopp's collection in the Magyar Iparművészet [Hungarian Applied Arts], 53 and, being Ferenc Hopp's adviser, he actively contributed to the enrichment of the collection and helped to make it a public collection. 54 After the Hopp Museum was established (1919), Felvinczi Takács attracted collectors interested in Oriental art to the Museum, coordinated their activity 55 and gave them advice on the enrichment of their collections. Due to his publications 5 '' and the positions he fulfilled in Hungarian social associations, he became widely recognized. He selected the Chinese, Japanese, Southeast-Asian, Tibetan and EastTurkestanian artefacts for the 1929 exhibition. The Exhibition of Oriental Art (arranged in the Museum of Applied Arts) displayed private collectors' artefacts exclusively: nine hundred objects of sixty-nine private collectors and antique shops. 57 The exhibition proved to be the largest muster of private collections of Oriental art; also, up till now it is almost the only source we can rely on when presenting Oriental collections of the period. 58 The objective of the exhibition was to outline Oriental art from the beginnings to the mid- 19 th century. For the most part, the artefacts were arranged on the basis of their places of origin; they were displayed in the following thematic sections: Turkey, Persia, Spanish-Moorish artefacts, India, Tibet, Siam, China, East Turkestan (artefacts of the Iranian Hellenism of the migration period), Japan and carpets. 59 Within each section, artefacts were arranged material-wise, in chronological order. The Chinese artefacts constituted the largest part of the exhibition, which demonstrates the significant role of Chinese art in the history of Far-Eastern art. The first artefacts exhibited in the Chinese section were Buddhist statues (Tang and Song period); then came ancient jade artefacts. The collection of Song, Ming and Qing carvings of precious stones (mountain crystal, chalcedony, amber, lapis lazuli etc.) was followed by the core of the Chinese collection, that is, ceramics. A very large number of artefacts of the 419-piece Chinese collection were ceramics (40%). The outstanding quality of Chinese ceramic craft was exemplified by Han (3 rd century BC-3 rd century AD) and Tang (7"' -early 10 lh century) funeral ceramics, Ming (14 th-mid-17' h century) ornamental ridge-tiles and monochrome artefacts, and the various, coloured glazes of the Qing period (mid- 17 lh century-early 20 ,h century). At the same time, they demonstrated the fact that in the collectors' opinion ceramics were the most popular artefacts, although the focus of collecting shifted from the late, 17 ,h-18 th-century blue-and-white, overglaze painted porcelains and (Jesuit) porcelains, ordered by Europeans and made for export, to the Han and Tang funeral ceramics, Ming and Qing monochrome glazed ceramics and Ming and Qing architectural ceramics. As for bronzes, the exhibition displayed a set of Buddhist and Taoist statues as well as late ceremonial objects. Traditional Chinese crafts were represented by textiles and artefacts of red lacquer and cloisonné enamel. The last works of art exhibited in the Chinese unit were paintings and books. The exhibition classified the findings of East Turkestanian cave temples and of the Silk Road into a separate section; presently, researchers consider these artefacts as an organic part of the history of Chinese art. Among the objects found along the Silk Road, several fragments of cave-temples from Kizil and a stucco bodhisattva head from Turfan were displayed. Most of the exhibited collections started to take shape at the turn of the century. Among exhibiting collectors of Oriental artefacts we find members of the well-to-do middle class of the capital (József Csetényi, 6 " Emil Delmár,'' 1 Alfréd Perlmutter 62 ) as well as illustrious collectors of the upper middle class (Mór Lipót Herzog, 63 Mór Kornfeld, 64 Bertalan Hatvány 65 ). Curio dealers formed a characteristic group of the exhibitors (Sándor Donath, Emil Sándor, Vilmos Szilárd, Klasszis Corporation) and, owing to their professional skills, they made a considerable contribution to the enrichment of Oriental collections. The significant role they played in Hungarian art trade is indicated by the fact that numerous collectors purchased Oriental artefacts from them and that their objects