Fügedi Márta szerk.: B.-A.-Z. megye népművészete (Miskolc, 1997)

ANGOL NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÁS Fügedi Márta

particular parts. The wooden graveposts could indicate the sex, age and social status of the deceased with a few marks and ornaments. In the Presbyterian village graveyards of our county especially rich monuments of traditional gravepost erection remained untouched. 4. Another separate chapter presents the material culture of country cottages reflecting the life of the people, the families' state of supply, the relation of workdays and holidays as well as the relationship between man and objects. In the last two centuries there have been enormous changes in the housing conditions of the peasants. From the second half of the 19th century the so called 'clean room' became common as the representative place in the peasant house, where the most valuable pieces of furniture and textiles were arranged in a spectacular way. The so called workspace was the place round the stove which was for heating and cooking. In the so called cult area, generally in the corner of the room on the side of the street, round the table and the bench was the place of the objects used in religious ceremonies and other valuables of the family. Until the beginning of the 19th century most of the furniture was produced by domestic industry. Especially in Bükkalja and the Zempléni mountains, the regions rich in wood, there worked a lot of professional specialists who made chests, chairs, benches, tables and sideboards in an individually decorated, appealing form in spite of the simple technology applied. From the end of the 18th century several significant joiner centres were working to fulfil the demands of the peasants, as well; their furniture decorated with colourful paint and 'flower patterns' - chests for clothes, benches with arms, wall cupboards, mirrors, sideboards, racks was adjusted more and more to local demands. Right until the 1920s coloured furniture from Miskolc had a great influence and a big market in the region. Originally craftsmen from Miskolc prepared the richly decorated furniture for the 'Matyós

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, who were famous for their demand for ornaments, but joiners from Miskolc later even settled there to produce goods for this important market. From the middle of the 19th century a significant furniture making centre was set up in the town of Sátoraljaújhely - adapting to the needs of another region, the northern part of the county - which produced coloured chests, bedposts, chests with arm and chests of drawers imitating middle class style but decorated with colourful painting - all in accordance with the demands of the rather isolated villages of the Zempléni mountains, up to the 1940s. Home-made textiles fulfilled basic needs from clothing through housekeeping to farming in the peasants' life. Linens made of hemp first went out of fashion in clothing but the production and use of home-made linens of varying quality were still common until the 1950s in our county. The importance of the domestic textile industry of the peasants is demonstrated by the fact that according to a survey 18,000 women were involved in hemp processing in 154 settlements in Borsod county in 1885, and the number of looms exceeded 8,000. The river valleys and the region of Bodrogköz, which is rich in water, were especially suitable for hemp growing. The traditional textiles decorated with weaving and embroidery mainly preserved their role as the accessories of folk