A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 46. (2007)

Gyulai Éva: Szabó- és szűrszabó céhek Miskolcon a 16-19. században

FELT CLOAK TAILORS' AND FELT TAILORS' GUILDS IN MISKOLC DURING THE 16TH-19TH CENTURIES One of the earliest tailors' guilds in north-eastern Hungary was founded in Miskolc, in 1521 according to local tradition. The privileges of the tailors of Miskolc were confirmed by King Ferdinánd I in 1550. The privilegc ensured that they were exempt from paying the toll when they transportcd the coarse grey felt they used for making garments to their respective town. In 1610, the tailors were granted a new privilege. They adopted their bye-laws from the tailors' guild of Eger, active since the Middle Ages. The tailors' guild of Miskolc had many members by the 18th century, and at the time of the early 19th century economic boom, their membership rose to one hundred, becoming one of the largest in I lungary. Although tailors sometimes made custom clothing, they preferred the manufacture of ready made items, which they then sold in Miskolc and at various fairs. A certain specialisation can be noted among the tailors vvorking with finer imported textiles and the felt cloak tailors using coarse félts produced in Upper Hungary (principally in County Gömör). The felt cloak tailors of Miskolc received their bye-laws from the Empress in 1768 and ran one of the region's largest guilds. Although research on the craft industry of Hungary generally maintains that the main centres of felt cloak tailors were the market-towns of County Gömör (Rosenau/Roznava/Rozsnyó, Eltsch/JelSava/Jolsva, Gross-Steffelsdorf/Rimavská Sobota/Rimaszombat, now all in Slovakia) and Debrecen in the Great Hungárián Plain, Miskolc can alsó be ranked among these centres in view of the activity of the felt cloak tailors' guild. A new division of Iabour can be noted from the 1820, at the dawn of capitalism: so-called Germán tailors making clothing in the Germán style separated from the Hungárián tailors making Hungárián costumes trimmed with frogging. There were alsó women tailors, who only made women's clothing. Jcwish tailors catering to the Jewish community appeared in the laté 18th century, but they did not establish their own guild. Most Jewish tailors were engaged in mending and altering garments. Modernisation eventually reached the tailors too: most guilds dissolved in the 1870s and various associations were förmed in their stead, among which the tailors' association was the largest. Modernisation and the spread of sewing machines led to the transformation of the tailors' trade too. In addition to a capitalist small industry, department stores and fashion stores selling ready-to-wear clothing appeared in Miskolc too. Éva Gyulai 262