Vida Gabriella: A miskolci fazekasság a 16-19. században (Officina Musei 8. Miskolc, 1999)
THE POTTERY OF MISKOLC
THE POTTERY OF MISKOLC The Middle Tisza ceramic style group stretching from Debrecen to the northern border of the country was the most colourful, but at the same time regarding its stylistic characteristics was undoubtedly a single regional unit during the second half of the 19 th century. The pottery centres existing here were geographically quite distant from each other, but they had individually well developed pottery ornamentation. We have tried to establish their joint origins, the connections of this very varied and hardly summerizable style group based on the knowledge of thorough research of the major centres, and in specific through discovering the history of the Miskolc pottery school. It became obvious during the research period, that examination of the guild period does not provide answers to all of our questions. The Middle Ages broken dishes discovered in the town, and especially the examination of the glazed ceramic pieces retrieved during the excavations of Diósgyőr castle - compared to the articles published about Renaissance stove tiles and the paper of Soproni Olivér about this region of the country - made it possible to reconstruct the history of the stylistic group and the regional pottery industry. Obviously we cannot provide thorough answers to all the questions concerning the ceramic history of this style group from the 16 th to the beginning of the 20 th century, this will be left to further detailed studies. The written evidence and the style's critical examination have provided acceptable answers to the questions concerning the connections between 17 lh century Renaissance glazed decorative ceramics, the peasant pottery industry of the 18 th , early and late 19 th century till its demise, and thus establishing its existence and characteristics. The changes in the elements and the complete decorative style, the direction of its development are proven and added to by the plentiful written evidence. The Middle Ages low quality, self-supplying pottery craft changed to the concentration of the craft into pottery guilds and centres after the spread of the glazing techniques during the 15 th century. According to Szűcs Jenő (1955, p. 118) from 1514 in Kassa and according to the historians of Kassa from 1515 there is written evidence of a pottery guild. In Sárospatak in the year of becoming a town, in 1572 the potters founded their guild and were among the first trades to do so. From this early period mainly from Kassa, from the cellars of Miklós Prison a lot of fragments were recovered, probably because in the building or nearby around the turn of the 15-16 th century a pottery was operating. The bits recovered prove, that during this first period of glazing dishes green, yellow and brown, and often mixed lead glazing was used on the surfaces of the jugs, plates and platters. Green-yellow-white or yellow-white-brown splashed plates are common, this decorating method was well established during this period. During the 17 th century besides the lead potters the continually eastwardly spreading Habans occurred in the Uplands, who were not only supplying the surrounding areas, but also a considerable portion of the Great Plains with decorative pottery. There were such centres in Rimaszombat, Jolsva, Rozsnyó, Murány, Pongyelok, Sárospatak. Their styles - except perhaps the Bokály form - did not affect the local lead pottery style. From the same period a number of written proofs occur from the Great Plains, which substantiate the opinion based on archaeological findings, that the heat resistant Gömör cooking pots were sought after products all over the Great Plains. From the point of view of the examined style group the 17 th century Hungarian pottery craft was definitive. Its existence is due to the 16 l century taste and need, and it
