Bányai József: A vadászat tárgyi eszközei - A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum tárgykatalógusai 2. (Budapest, 2010)
appeared and spread among hunters in the late 19th century. The best contemporary prism binocular brands were Carl Zeiss, Hensoldt, Wetzlar and Voigtländer, while outstanding Galilei telescope brands were Voigtländer, Gérard, Busch and Charlottenburg. According to early 20th-century practice, telescopes with a magnifying factor of 5-6 were used in level country and a factor of 8-10 was needed in mountainous areas. Snowshoes were rarely used but highly practical pieces of equipment for hunters. Probably originating in Siberia and widely used in Scandinavia, snowshoes were made by Szekler hunters in Transylvania in a wide range of types, and used them not only in snow. Marsh dwellers wore them while hunting and fishing in moorlands, protecting themselves from sinking. Decoys were often used during waterfowl shooting in order to deceive the highly wary wild ducks. In Australia in the 1860s such wooden or reed tools had already been used, and a decade later Hungarian shooting magazines carried advertisements for reed and rubber mallard decoys. MISCELLANEOUS HUNTING INSTRUMENTS The Hunting Collection of our museum contains objects that are not directly related to hunting equipment, but for various reasons the hunters of past ages frequently used or wore them. A hunter without dog is worthless’ - claims an old saying. A well-trained dog is essential to successful shooting. Training tools include fowl trainers and whistles. Handaxes were used for cutting firewood, while hunting sticks with saws were useful for cutting foliage that impeded hunting paths. Such sticks were made of bent oak, with the saw inserted in a lengthwise slit on the stick. Bird nets could be attached to the hunting bag, for the transporation of smaller game birds such as quail or partridge. Gun cabinets, for the storage of sporting guns, could often be found in the homes of well-to-do citizens who indulged in hunting and shooting. Our collection keeps one such walnut cabinet from the 1870s, with drawers and cut glass, and room for five shotguns. Pickaxes came often handy when climbing high hills or steep cliffs on chamois or moufflon hunts. Walking sticks were also widely used. These were made of reed with antler handles, especially for hunters and gamekeepers. An interesting item is a copper lighter, made from a World War 1 anti-aircraft machine gun projectile, with depictions of deer, squirrel, pheasant and mallard. It was probably made by a gamekeeper on service in the field. The collection is completed by items like ramrods, hat pins, hunting tables, cigar cutters, roasters and hand warming muffs. One of the most unique and valuable items of the whole hunting collection is a mid-19th century belt with an attached silver hunting horn of a chief gamekeeper of an aristocratic estate. The maker is unknown, but the place and time of manufacture is not: Vienna, 1853. Unfortunately the identity of the customer, the user and the occasion when it was worn all remain unknown. A good pipe is a carefully protected item of a hunter’s personal belongings. Tobacco and smoking was introduced to Hungary by the Ottoman Turks in the 17th century, but only became general in the 19th century. The enjoyment of hunting and smoking was an essential part of the lifestyle of Hungarian aristocrats and the nobility, especially in the counties. The country houses of aristocrats and the gentry almost always had a smoking room. After the hunt or the conclusion of supper, gentlemen returned to these rooms to drink, smoke and converse. The material of the pipes was variable, they were made of clay, china, wood, meerschaum or, in the case of English pipes, bog-wood. In the first half of the 20th century the majority of smokers now smoked cigars or cigarettes, and consequently pipemaking began to decline. The museum collection keeps 5 meerschaum, 3 wooden, 4 clay and 8 china pipes. One of the meerschaum pipes with a false 1786 date features a scene of bear hunting with spears, one of the wooden pipes from the mid-19th century and all of the china pipes feature hunting scenes. These were decorated by hand or stereotyped, two of them still have their pouches. Most of these pipes were given as presents and not meant be used. In the late 18th century a new pice of furniture appeared for the storage of pipes: the pipe rack.25 These containers were made in a variety of shapes. Depending on the number of pipes they stored, there were racks that could be placed on tables, shelves, mounted on walls, in shapes of tables or chairs. The latter types had one or more drawers, or a gliding top. Our collection contains a hanging pipe rack from the first half of the 19th century, with one drawer and room for seven pipes. 25 A magyar pipa története — a magyar történelem a pipákon, Budapest, 2001, p. 27. 18
