A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 21. (Veszprém, 2000)

Mészáros Veronika: Ládák a Laczkó Dezső Múzeum Néprajzi Gyűjteményében I.

RÖVIDÍTÉSEK BIB = Balatoni Intéző Bizottság Ltsz = leltári szám CHESTS FROM THE ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION OF THE VESZPRÉM MUSEUM „LACZKÓ DEZSŐ" I. The name of hope chests is accounted for in the first place by their function. As a dowry, besides a bed, the bride used to bring a chest into the house of the groom. It was a highly esteemed article of furniture, and after the wedding, the trousseau was placed in it. The chest was the pride of the first house in the best room, and an effort was made to position it in accordance with its rank. Beginning in the 1900s, the chest was ousted from the main room, and its place was taken by a commode and later by a wardrobe. The chest was used for one of several functions. It generally served for the storage of clothes, mostly underwear; later rarely-used clothes were kept in it, possibly the clothing of family members who had passed away. When the place of the chest in the main room was taken by the commode and the wardrobe, its function also changed. It was used in the larder as a food chest, mostly for flour or grain. In the attic or vineyard cellar, it served for the storage of bric-a-brac or old rags. A total of 50 hope chests are to be found in the collection. Distinguishing the two basic types, there are 5 carpenter's chests, and 45 chests produced by cabinetmakers. The carpenter's chests in the museum are of the general type of carpenter's chests produced in Transdanubia; they show the same peculiarities of form and decoration. Wooden inlaid chests are characteristic chests of the Bakony and the Balaton Uplands. In fact, marquetery was outstandingly varied here and flourished throughout the country. In Hungary, it was only in the Balaton Uplands that the inlaid chest became generally fashionable in folk art. The painted, engraved and carved chests in the collection are all uniform. If they are not all Komárom chests, they are at least pattered according to this taste. The hope chest collection of the museum has gradually increased, although not according to a deliberate attempt. The places of origin of the chests encompass the whole county. Parents would obtain a hope chest in basically two ways. Either they would have a named one prepared by a local cabinet-maker - monograms on the chests bear witness to this - or they would buy one ready made in the market. This review of the collection has provided opportunity for the hope chests used in this region to be presented. The changes which occurred in the function of the hope chests reflect the renewal of the culture of the home. Examination of the individual chest types provides a feeling for a bygone world of taste and form. When analysing the hope chests, we must not forget their essential function. „Wherever they were, or are, to be found, they remind us all of that period, those people, and those customs." 116