A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1971 (Debrecen, 1972)

Néprajz - Dankó Imre: Market-posters, the Announcement of Markets, Fairs, Puffery

Imre Dankó MARKET-POSTERS, THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MARKETS, FAIRS. PUFFERY. The chief concern of the author is an ethnographical investigation of country-markets and fairs. The subject of the present paper is merely a question of detail which, on further investigation, is sure to yield some highly valuable information. The author gives a survey of how country markets, fairs in Hungary were announced, but he treats only printed market-posters in greater detail. The first of these are known to have been used at the beginning of the 19th century. First only for the biggest, most important markets and fairs were such printed posters issued, but later on, by about the end of the 19th century they became popular all over the country, which was partly due to the ever increasing number of markets and also that a number of markets were held in smaller towns as well. There is a number of ways to the investigation of market posters. Their study can yield valuable information about the attraction that these markets exercised on a given area of the country, about the various goods offered, traditions and customs observed, means of traffic, conveyance of goods, various phases of the interchange of commodities, and in addition to these: how the markets and fairs moulded the life of rural population. The photographs of a number of highly interesting market-posters are also published. 418