Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)

Zsolt SOMOGYI: An Adaptable Applied Artist. Pál Horti's American Furniture

Pál Horti died in Bombay (Mumbai) on 25 May 1907, of yellow fever. After 1904 we do not encounter the name of his wife in the Budapest Directory of Names and Addresses. However, two letters written in Budapest in 1907 and preserved at the National Széchényi Library prove that she remained in the Hungarian capital after her husband's death.

6 From Magyar Iparművészet we know that her husband's Mexican collection (ceramics, plaster of paris copies, aquarelles, and photographs) and some of his designs were purchased jointly by Hungary's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Religious and Educational Affairs. The designs and the 'modern age ceramics collection' were shared out among trade schools and the Mexican collection passed to the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest. For their part, Horti's American designs were presented to the Applied Arts Association.

7 The artist's body was brought home from Bombay in May 1908 and reburied in Budapest on 24 June of that year. In the making of these arrangements the widow, too, played a part and we can therefore suppose that only afterwards did she leave the capital.

8 Even so, works made by the artist remained in her possession until the 1930s. The complete stock was purchased by its present owners in a town outside Hungary and was brought back to the country later on, after the Second World War. We have already reported on our conclusions concerning the drawings and wording of furniture sketches from Horti's 'American sketchbook' and on the fact of his connection with Oscar Onken, with Onken's 'Shop of the Crafters' enterprise at Cincinnati, and with Charles Limbert. Likewise, we have outlined the suites of furniture designed by Horti that were published in the 1906 catalogue of the Shop of the Crafters.

9 From among the products of the Shop of the Crafters firm, on the basis of the drawings published in Magyar Iparművészet twenty pieces can be linked with certainty to Horti. These belonged to a suite of furniture for a dining room and a suite of furniture for a library (or, as it would be called in Hungary, a study). Most of the pieces of furniture left behind by Horti can be traced; there are just four exceptions. It is our assumption that he planned to use the works he created in America as a collection of examples for use after his return home, during the next stage in his career, which, alas, was not to continue. The dining-room furnishings consisted of 2. Mission Dining Chair (no. 320.) from the inheritance of Horti's widow. Private Collection, Budapest. Photo by György Kaczúr