Kecskés Péter (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum Közleményei 4. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1987)

Tanulmányok - SABJÁN TIBOR: Adatok a kályhásmesterségről I. (Völcsey Lajos, Dör)

ofen. Dieser wurde noch im Verlaufe des Sommers bestellt, damit er zum Winter fertig wird. Am beliebtesten war der „bäuerliche Schulterofen", dessen unterer Teil viereckig, der obere Teil walzenförmig ausgebildet war (Bild 37). Zusammenfassend kann festgestellt werden, daß der Kachelofen aus Dör ebenso wie die Keramiken mit ihrer Tibor Sabján In the first piece of a series about the vanishing trade of stove-building, the author describes how Lajos Völcsey, a potter living in Dör, proceeds with his work. Although detailed studies of Dör pottery have already been published, the preparation of a tiled stove ''with eyes" (i.e. concave tiles) however, not only in Dör, but anywhere in Hungary, has not yet been covered. In Chapter 1 the preparation of the material is presented. The processes are essentially the same as the ones applied when making earthenware vessels, only the clay used for stove tiles is to be leaner. This is achieved by adding 30% sand. The "eyes" are made on the potter's wheel. From a clay ball, prepared in advance, the potter makes a bowl whose diameter is around 30 cm. He alters the shape of the bowl to be square at the brim with his hands then he applies to it the pinewood frame used for flanging. Using a small wooden stick he checkes on the four corners of the frame whether the shape of the tile is regular then cuts off the superfluous edges of the clay bowsl and, with a few gentle strokes of his fingers, bend them inward. Care must be taken during flanging lest air should get under the clay as it may cause the tile to crack when getting into contact with fire. When the flanges are ready the potter separates the frame from the clay then cuts the tile from the wheel and sets is apart to dry. When the "eye" has dried he sets it into the squaring templet to adjust deformations if any. (Pictures 1—19.) A corner tile consists of a regular "eye" and a side tile, half of the size of a regular one, stuck to it. The roughly shaped side tile is set aside to dry and when it is dry enough and will not shrink any more, it is measured and cut to size. The potter than takes the two pieces to be joined together and carves the surfaces to meet, then wets them with a sponge, smears with liquid clay also used for sticking on pot handles, finally presses them together in the squaring templet. When they are firmly stuck, he smears the curve where the two pieces meet with clay, adjusts the edge on the corner with liquid clay, finally carves a pattern on the same corner edge with a jack-knife. The panel of a corner tile has never been decorated in Dör. (Pictures 20-25.) One of the most difficult operations of making a tiled stove is to prepare the shoulder. First the potter makes, from a clay sheet pressed on a template board, the ornament for the edge of the cornice. To this he sticks the bottom, another part of the clay sheet, so that a narrow notch will form where the two meet. Then he sticks the upper ärmlichen Verzierung und ihrer technologischen Einfachheit zahlreiche Züge aus dem Mittelalter bewahren. Von den Ofenformen der Umgebung kann das nicht behauptet werden. Beachtenswert ist die Herstellung von roten und schwarzen Kachelöfen ohne Glasur im 20. Jahrhundert. Ihre Existenz ist ein seltener Archaismus. panel of the shoulder to it and sets in the ribs. The parts are joined as described in connection with the corner tiles. With this method both straight pieces and corner elements can be made. Straight shoulders are needed for stoves heated from outside whereas the ones stoked in the same room consist of corner tiles. (Pictures 26-27.) The preparation of the lower cornice or border goes similarly to that of the shoulders, but the same template is used in reverse position. The lower cornice has no notch, the master sets the "eyes" on the edges of the tiles. (Pictures 28.) Making the star to be placed on the upper part of the stove, is very simple. It is cut out of a dried clay sheet using a paper templet and a knife. The Völcsey family in Dör used one kind of star only. (Picture 29.) The button, for the middle of the top is again made on the potter's wheel. It is decorated with the repetition of ribs and stripes shaped by pressing a finger on the surface. (Pictures 30-33). Besides the usual potters' tools, Lajos Völcsey uses the following special appliances when making a stove: — the frame with which the flange of the eyes is made — the squaring templet for adjusting comer tiles and the concave tile ("eye") — the templer used for making the cornice (Pictures 34 and 35). The size of the appliances is established taking the shrinking of the basic material into account. E. g. the internal size of the frame is 21X21 cm so that the dried concave tile will measure 20X20 cm. Tiles are dried in the same way as earthenware vessels. Tiles for stoves were baked in three ways in Dör. Red terracotta tiles and black ones requiring a special procedure were baked once. Glazed stoves were fired twice. Green glazed stoves were made the most often, but blue, brown and black glazed ones, too, occurred. Nowadays the master makes 6-10 stoves in a year. In olden times they made more than that. Turning out a stove takes 3 weeks including drying and baking. It can be set up in two days. Earlier stoves were stoked from outside and had an undivided space within. Recently stoves with an internal flue system have been preferred as they are more economic. They are stoked in the same room where they stand. The traditional fuel for stoves stoked from another room was wood, brushwood and corn-stalk, but dry leaves, too, were sometimes burned in them. Modern stoves are heated with wood and coal. DATA ON THE TRADE OF STOVE-MAKING I. (LAJOS VÖLCSEY, DÖR)