F. Mentényi Klára szerk.: Műemlékvédelmi Szemle 1998/1. szám Az Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség tájékoztatója (Budapest, 1998)
FORRÁS - Keresztessy Csaba: A keszthelyi Festetich-kastély porcelán-leltára a 19. század első feléből
Although the document is not dated, but its approximate birth might be between 12 th May and 28th July, 1846. The former is the date of the death of count László Festetich, following which - supposedly - his sons made an account of the bequest, the latter is the date of a note made by the person making the inventory, according to which the count gave instruction to sell objects in medium and bad condition. The character of László Festetich differed to a great extent from that of Kristóf, the builder of the castle, who had been if not a puritan, but moderate. That is the reason why the different family histories, biographical lexicons or publication dealing with the history of Keszthely castle mention him only with a polite brevity. The young count, born in Ság on 15 th June, 1785, inherited in 1804 the possession of Balatonkeresztúr from his father, György, the founder of Georgikon in order to practice agriculture. A year later order of his father gives an account of the debts of László. The strict rules of his father (less monthly allowance, number of servants, horses and carriages) could not reach their purpose, as four years later he had to pay a newer debt of his son, a sum of 360 000 Forints. According to the accounts, the young count spent 589 570 Forints in the four years following 1814, so his habits did not change. No wonder that his sons had taken over the possessions in a very bad situation, so between September, 1846 and April 1854 in a series of auctions they sold furniture, dresses, arms, bed linen and porcelains. According to the report of the auction the day of selling the porcelains was 6th February, 1847. Although tableware made of other material was often listed among porcelains, it was known that in Kristóf Festetich 's household the number of expensive porcelains could be two or three dozens and the majority of the tableware was faience from Holies. His son, Pál, had 472 pieces of porcelain tableware of unknown origin. The first inventories of these porcelains are from the beginning of the 19 th century, the extract of the one from 1818 is published in the appendix of Piroska Péczely's monograph of 1958. Many of its pieces might be similar to those of the 1846 inventory, although there is a larger number of them in the latter, probably as a result of the purchases of Kristóf Festetich. Having similar names, further similarities might be supposed. On the basis of the 1861 inventory the number of the sold pieces might be concluded. It is striking that the 1846 inventory mentions 244 pieces of different types of Saxon porcelains and this number is only seven by 1861. Summarising the whole in 1846 there were 5095 pieces while in 1861 the collection contained only 2827 pieces of porcelains.
