Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)

Oana Toda: Tobacco Clay Pipes from Rupea Castle and their Historical Context

Tobacco Clay Pipes from Rupea Castle and their Historical Context 127

side of its shank that reads [FRIJEDREICH/ [THERESIENJFELD. The pipe maker, Anton Friedreich, was active in Theresienfeld bei Wien (AU) during the 19th century.57 This production center is located in the area were two other very important ones (Wiener Neustadt and Pernitz, AU) emerged. The leading masters in Banska Stiavnica, that also influenced the most important Transdanubian workshops, were native to this region.58

The last entry of the catalogue (PL 1/16) probably resembled the previous one, except

for the molded decoration of the keel. What is more important though is the molded crest of Hungary (Fig. 5/16), which should date our piece after 1867, therefore during the time of the Dual Monarchy. The pipe was coated in dark-brown glaze, except for the Hungarian crest, kept in the original red fabric, to make it more visible. Such pieces, bearing crests, were quite popular and good analogies are found throughout East- Central Europe,59 with some examples produced in the well-known workshops from Banska Stiavnica.60

SMOKING IN TRANSYLVANIA: HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE FINDS IN RUPEA AND

THE SAXON TERRITORY

The clay tobacco pipes found their way into Rupea castle because, in the 17th century, smoking became a wide-spread habit with an alarming diffusion speed all across Europe. It was in Western Europe that smoking was first introduced to the continent after being brought from the Americas.61 For Transylvania, along with parts of East-Central Europe and the Balkans, the origin of the phenomenon can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire62 and not directly to Western Europe, as it was the case for the majority of the Early Modern states in the central part of the continent.63

Smoking reached the Transylvanian Principality through soldiers and mercenaries. It was mostly the Ottoman army that brought the habit and the associated artifacts, and disseminated them towards the lower social classes. It appears

that the upper military and political class was familiar with tobacco consumption from the beginning of the 17th century.64 It was not until the second half of the 1600s that it became widespread. The phenomenon accelerated during the reigns of George Rákóczi II and John Kemény, when troop deployments across the territory were a common occurrence.65 The popularity of tobacco consumption grew at such an alarming rate that rules and regulations were issued in an attempt of banning it as early as 1662, by order of Prince Michael Apafy I, himself a heavy smoker until then.66

Over the last four decades of the 17th century, several resolutions of the Transylvanian Diet were established to counter and prohibit the tobacco consumption, trade, and cultivation. In many Hungarian areas,67 it appears these

57 Bielich-Curny 2009, 353.

58 Nagy 2000, 50.

59 Serbia: Gacic 2011, 125, cat. 173 (but dated to the first half of the 19th century!); Bohemia: Vysohlid 2009, 22, fig. 5; Körmend, Hungary: Nagy 2001, CVII. Táb./l-2; Tärgu Mures: Márton Csiki house, unpublished.

60 Haider 2000, 144, cat. 8/16, pl. XXVII.

61 For a general picture of the process, see: Osskó 2000,14-18.

62 On the introduction and spread across the Ottoman Empire, see: Robbinson 1985,149-153; Osskó 2000,18-19.

63 Gruia 2013,21-30.

64 Early and doubtable sources account for Transylvanians being acquainted to smoking in the second half of the 16th century, prior to the widely accepted date of its introduction to the Ottoman Empire, 1590-1600 (Gruia 2012c, 227). However, some data is plausible, such as the mention related to Prince Gabriel Bethlen receiving pipes and snuff in 1615 (Haider 2000, 20).

65 Haider 2000, 20.

66 Gruia 2012c, 228.

67 Tomka 2000, 26.