Veres László: Magyar népi üvegek (Borsodi Kismonográfiák 28. Miskolc, 1989)

the Germans started here glass-making, but later the Czech-Moravian masters were much more important. Glass-wares became everyday utensils in peasant households from the end of the 18th century. But this does not mean that Hungarian peasants did not know and did not use glasses before as it is proved by different pictures. The point is that because of the high prices of glass it was more advantageous for the Hungarian peasants to buy drinking and storing vessels made of wood and ceramics. Folk glasses created stability and continuity in Hungarian glass art. They assured transition and tradition in different styles at every time. The forms offolk glasses mirror achronism. The glasses in Hungarian museums and private collections can be divided in four groups. They can be drinking vessels, storing vessels, glasses used for cultic purposes and articles with a special function. Most glass-wares belong to the group of drinking and storing vessels. Winebottles and spirit-bottles are the most common. The latter did not have a unified form even in the 19th century. The globular, long-necked bottles gradually straitened and their necks became longer so by the middle of the 19th century they got their well-known form. Until the end of the 19th century it was common use to put glass-steals on the body of the bottles and these regularly contained the initials of the customer. It was later substituted by the label. Wine-bottles and spirit-bottles were usually made from green or white glass. The generally spread balloon-glasses can be put in the group of bottles. These were large bottles in reality used for storing wine and vinegar. Most balloon-glasses were made in the glass-works of Southern Transdanubia. Among storing vessels frequently occurred milk-bottles and fruit-jars. While bottles and glass-balloons were not decorated milk-bottles and fruitjars often had ornaments. It was common use to make them blowing into wire screen. This way on the body of the vessels twisted and net structured stripes were formed. This plastic ornament increasing the effect of light and shadow enhanced the formal beauty of glasses. As opposed to storing vessels drinking vessels were mainly ornamented. At the same time the kinds of glasses belonging to this category had almost endless formal and functional peculiarities. The engraved, painted and with 153