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Explore the ancient history of pottery in Hungary, from hand-built dishes fired in bonfires to the beautiful black ceramics of Nádudvar. Learn about the unique methods of decoration and the famous Fazekas pottery family. Experience the process of throwing clay on a potter's wheel and the intricate designs made with a feather writing tool. Discover the beauty and practicality of handmade pottery in today's world.
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SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP PROJECT TRACE (DiscoveringTraditionalCraftsAcrossEurope) Made by : Anna Rácz, Regina Fekete, Eszter Balogh, Réka Danyi, Daniella Gökler, Beáta Szutor and Lídia Herceg Lajos Kossuth PrimarySchool of Debrecen University Debrecen,Hungary 2010
Potteryin the Debrecen area, Hungary
Ancient history Pottery is one of theoldestcrafts. The earliestpotterydisheswerehandbuilt and theywerefiredinbonfirestomakethemlastlong.
The History of Pottery in Hungary We have beautiful stove tiles and various pots from 15th century Renaissance times.
HabanArt Fromtheearly 17th century, the most beautifulplates, jars, jugs and bowlswere made bytheHabans, an AnabaptistcommunityfromSwitzerland. The decoration of theirproductsoriginally showedItalian influences.
Turkishinfluence Decorationwhichlooks more HungariansoonreplacedtheHabanerstyle. The newmotifs(tulips, roses, birds, etc.) weretakenfrom the Ottoman Empire, whichconqueredHungary in the16th century.
All kinds of pots were needed. Cooks used a different kind of pot for each type of food. As the saying goes:” Smelly food has a smelly pot.”
Because of mass production and cheap foreign crockery, in the middle of the 20th century people didn’t buy handmade pottery. However, traditional craftsmanship is becoming more and more popular again.There is a great demand for cooking, baking and serving dishes, …
and potters sell their products at fairs, or straight from their workshops.
There are galleries and exhibitions where today’s housewives can find beautiful, …
Nádudvaris a small town about 45 km from Debrecen. It is the western gate of the Hortobágy National Park, which is part of the world heritage. The town was named after the yards surrounded by reed (=reed+yard). It was inhabited in prehistoric times.
The unique method of decoration from Nádudvar is special because it is done by rubbing with a pebble. The top quality clay found around Náduvar made the town the most important centre of black pottery. A famous potter family called Fazekas (=Potter in English) has made the famous black glazeless ceramics here since the 17th century.
The members of the family do everything themselves from the mining of the clay to the sale of pots. The potters from Nádudvar made the bowls, water jugs, dishes and tiny spice containers for the whole territory east of the RiverTisza. The most spectacular working process is the forming of the pot. Shaping something on a potter’s wheel is called „throwing”. Then comes the decoration. There are three types of decoration. Two of them –scratching and superpositioning (putting clay ornaments on) -are done when the clay is still wet. scratching scrubbing superpositioning
Besides geometric patterns, leaves, rosemary twigs, pine branches, wavelines, dots, ...
flowers and birdsarealsofrequentlyusedmotifs - bothwithlightglazed …
… redglazedceramics. Theseornamentalpiecesarealso made in Nádudvar, butthetown is reallyfamousforitsblackpottery.
In Hungary, the second kind of decoration – scrubbing - is made only in Nádudvar. It is used on the dry pot just before firing. This process is done with a simple river pebble. The part of the pot which is scrubbed with the pebble becomes shiny, and after the firing it will be bright black
The firing is done in a traditional wood-burning kiln at 950 Celsius. The kiln is covered, smoke is trapped inside and soot colours the pieces black.
Jugs Asinmanyotherplaces, thepotters of Nádudvar made a kind of „tricky” surpriseor „decoy” jugs. A legendsaysthatitsavedthebeautifuldaughter of themayorfromtheharemoftheSultanofTurkey. He returnedthegirlfor a jugthatcouldturnwaterintowine. Potterswhomaketheblackceramicshaveonlytwocoloursto play with:blackand blacker. Thiswaytheycreate a wonderfulbalance of light and shadow . The jug had a doublebottom, sotheycouldkeepwine and waterinitatthesametime. It has severalfalsesprouts, soit’sdifficulttofind out howyoucandrinkfromit.(The Sultandidn’t!)
Jugs in the shape of the famous Hungarian hussars of the 19th century were very popular. They are called – depending on size – „Big Mike Jug” („Nagymiska”) and „Little Mike Jug” („Kismiska”). The female jug is called „Juliska”.
‘Nagymiska’, ‘Kismiska’ and ‘Juliska’
A Visitto a LocalPotter’s The potter is putting the ball of clayontothepotter’swheel, centering and formingitwithherhands, soshe is „throwing” it.
She is trimmingthepiece, removingtheexcessclaywith a fishline.
Thrown pieces are waiting to be fired in an electric kiln. Pouring white glaze into the jug. The design is drawn on the jug with „íróka”, meaning „little writing tool”, which has a tip made from the stem of a goose feather.
After dipping the pots into the glaze to give them an outer coating, they are fired again.
To have this light green glaze, the ware is first dipped in white slip, then in the green glaze.