2011. március 21., hétfő

A type of handkerchief from the 17th century Hungary

 Illésházy  Gáspárné 1648
From the 16-17th century we know many archieves about keszkenő, or the handkerchief which  mainly held in the hand. Probably 14th century, has already appeared in Hungary, where the  in royal wardrobe can be found. A scarf or handkerchief covering the hands. The standard measures were usually between 20 and 40 cm, sided trimmed textilepieces which were decorated with a variety of embroidery and laces on the trim. Like the rest of the aristocratic attire there is more data about the upper classes, as well as paintings made of them. A girl usually had 10-20 pieces of handkerchief, but that number could reach up to 100 pieces. A wide variety of materials and decorated items can be found in the inventories. In the 16th century appears in costume-paintings, where women are held in their hands. This was lived in ethnographic era still 19-20th century, usually at festive occasions. So far, in excavation no one still remains or just fragments of whole cloth, but it probably can be  the surviving habit of the early modern tradition. In addition, placed it to the dead man's funeral in the 16th century, because it is visible in a spacial type of paintings. These were made after the death from the corps and placed it to the funeralstage during the mass. It also seems that the society had a meaning for it, as a personal memory of the dead who buried with it. But if the bride was unfaithful, the groom tore the received dowry.
             In the ethnographic tradition, often used during the dance, woman dried the swelter of the man. Often a  lover or a young husband received kerchief, which was worn in a pocket or pinned to the waist. In the 16th century we find it in men's and women's inventories as well, so the habit  of give a shawl as a dowry can back up to the appearance of it. The used materials were very variables  like fine linen, thin and thick linen, Hungarian canvas (gyolcs), Polish and Moravian cambric (patyolat) in the inventories. Ethnographic pieces are also made from fine, lightweight materials,  as said above the linen or canvas.
The techniques of embroidery were very diverse, despite the fact that we know just a few items, and they are survived the decades in collections, just because of the fine material, which can be easily destroyed, dissipated. The inventories can be found silk thread embroidery with skófium (auri filum, a silk string with gold), and Hungarian gold. The colors were generally quite variable, all-white to colorful can be found. Red and green  were regarded to fashionable colors. This is understandable when you consider that the majority of plants used for ornamentation. The techniques of embroidery next to the Hungarian we can find Spanish and Italian style in the sources. The clean white embroidery remained until the 20th century, because it was very popular. On the edge of the handkerchief can be also found many kinds of laces from the Turkish fringed type to the bone-lace from the 15th century
Currently, a finely woven fabric material is selected to prepare a handkerchief. This is 20x 20 cm in size and the embroidery pattern is Ottoman, four-flower style. Worked off the edges with silk thread and used the same silk to made a lace with loops. The lace could be prepared quickly and easily. I make a double loop about a 1 cm long trim-part. I continue this knotting method on the loopsIn the meantime, it is worth paying attention to keep knots tightly because they easily turn away. The Turkish sample fills with different type of embroirey tecniques .But let this be a separate record because of the difficulty ...






Bibliography
Radvánszky Béla: Magyar családélet és háztartás a XVI-XVII. században I. 1989. 109.

Upper clothes in the Early New Ages in Hungary

The early modern Hungarian Kingdom women's upper garment can distinguish between two types: the Spanish and Hungarian-type costumes. The sources said a variety of garments were worn the colder days. The present data show that no matter which type of outer clothing  was worn to the garments. At least not the Hungarian or western type defined it, but which was considered to appropriate for the decorated outfit. As we shall see below, add some problems to the complexity of the situation  that a lot of different names can be found in the sources, which patterns should be defined from the images and artifacts .

Bela Radvánszky collected them the followings in inventories and letters:

Hacuka
 The German word Huseck effected this expression. Historically we can find the names hacuka, hacoka which was a light overcoat or mantle of the aristocracy. It remained in several dialects in different meanings . That was the name of the old style long German men coat in the Csallokoz, but it is often identified as a lightweight jacket for women  (eg. in Kemenesalja, Kiskunfélegyháza, Tokaj etc), which was also used in the early modern period.  In Debrecen and Sopron outmoded clothing was the hacuka, such as it is now well-known nowadays, and in the town from county Torontál, Tiszahegyes the meaning was 'clobber' . Baranya differs from the former interpretation, the white female stockings was understood as hacuka. I have not found data for the exact form, only the material and decoration can gain from descriptions and the images .


View of Cluj-Napoca 1614, Extract
Lady Eva Csaky wife of István Forgách
Spanish gown: 

We find it in the contemporary sources as jankerProbably a long robe, which was popular in the Western fashion among women. Made them short (kurta) and long sleeved variations. Separate sleeves often linked to the gowns. Janet Arnold collected some in Patterns of Fashion, Volume 2 and it is visibleon the engraving in the Cluj from 1614. In the foreground  there are three female characters wearing spanish gowns.



Bomez 
Doublet from Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion Vol.2
The contemporaneous written material to find bomez, wambesz, vambesz as well, but Lilla Tompos identifies it with the so-called korcovány. In the pattern books there are accurate picture of them, for example among the samples in Kosice. According to this the korcovány is a waist-high, tight, sleeveless upper garment, which includes pieces on the waist, and on the shoulders decorated with epolett. This occurs in both male and female wardrobe can find it, and like other similar upper garment it was produced by a very wide range of materials. The korcovány closed with buttons on the front. Although Hungarian research isn't mentioned it, but compared with the well-known pieces from Western Europe the doublet is the closest to  our korcoványunk, which we can find in the works of Janet Arnold. Accordingly, it is possible that is attached separate sleeves to korcoványok even from other material  than the korcovány as well.


Kis köntös (Little robe)
 Short-sleeved upper garment. A wide, but may be a short kind of coat. Awareness of tailor's pattern is not yet identified. 

Gelezna
 A typical overcoat made from fur , which is usually long. A variety of fur was used as the fox, marten.
Women's winter clothing from 1703



Mente

The pattern was like the men's. Radvánszky collected several types. Thus, it was known long and thigh mente, and the short version was the mentécske (little mente) in the resource. The third type of clamping mente, which was a kind of close-fitting garment. The latter can only assume, since this piece is not currently known, the name clamping and the stiffened clothing habits of the period considered the possibility that this may have been fastened with whalebone or some other natural material.

Suba

 One of the most frequently mentioned type of upper garment. Usually it covered with a very wide range of fabrics and fur was outside. There have been cases that the fur was wore outside, and inside was lined with a different textile. We can find many different types in the inventories, such as  medium-sized suba for women. It streched under the waist, but it was not long. Radvánszky said the girls had different pattern than the women. From both type made winter and summer versions, where the difference is only in the amount of furs. Another kind is large or old Suba, which was long. Outside there was green taffeta or kamuka (type of textile) was used,  and decorated with furs, silk and gold and silver laces. Little suba was a short which reached only to the waist, but it was very richly decorated. Peter Apor wrote in the Metamorphosis Transylvaniae that only girls wore it in his time and decorated such richly that anyone heavily see the original textile. Radványszky contradict this, because women also have little subas. But it can be that there were precious garment, of course, will not throw out the owner. So it is understandable why the women were often herited them to the relative young girls. Finally, long-suba also mentioned  which streched below knee and only made for winter. All of the suba's pattern were wide.




Ursula Kanizsai


Kozsók, kosucska This is a kind if suba rather furry, the name is mostly appeared in the countryside..




Finally, there are also data palást (mantle) and köpönyeg (cloak). Between the two type can not really find a significant difference, of course, assuming the special mention of the two type some difference. With the parallels, I concluded that cut and the size can be the solution. As circle and the oval shape appear both of them, but the robe (or mantle) occurs more than the cloak. We know from the period not only long but also to the waist, elbow length cloaks. They called  tippet. There are archaeological artifacts as well in Hungary. Two sites were found tippets: in Miskolc-Avas the parish church in 1941 and 2010, the Franciscan Church in Sopron (known as the "Goat Temple"). The latter has not yet appeared in books, only a brief account of the end of 2010, in the National Restoration Conference held in the Hungarian National Museum. This is a  Spanish garb,a full woman's dress, on which spreaded the embroidered lace tippet. The other tippet from Miskolc made from velvet and was restored by Mrs Adam Bako in 1982-83. In addition, she told that  among the findings of Sarospatak there were some  textile piece  presuming as a tippet, but it was not be able to  be restored.  An other restorer Katalin E. Nagy, keep this type the small suba. Since there is no mention for sleeves of the little subas, so it is a conceivable option, but the formal terms are more easily searchable, so I classified this tippet, which in Western Europe was also a very fashionable outer clothing, in the type of cloaks.
The tippet from Miskolc, parish church


The tippet from Sopron, Franciscan church
Bibliography
Bakó Ádámné: Egy XVI. századi körgallér restaurálása. HOMÉ 1986.
Domokos Ottó: A magyarországi céhes szabók mintakönyvei 1630-1838. MNM, Budapest 1997.
Radvánszky Béla: Magyar családélet és háztartás a XVI-XVII. században. 1989. 94-102.
Tompos Lilla: Magyar és spanyol női viselet Magyarországon a 16. században. Korunk 2008 július http://www.korunk.org/?q=node/8&ev=2008&honap=7&cikk=8950 2009. 09.21. 17:32
Tompos Lilla: A korcovány az invetnáriumok tükrében. Ars Decorativa
Magyar Néprajz IV. Anyagi Kultúra3. Életmód/ , Vékonyposztó, „Finommatéria” Felsőruhákhttp://vmek.oszk.hu/02100/02152/html/04/347.html2011.03.18. 7:03
Pallas nagylexikon: hacuka címszóhttp://vmek.oszk.hu/02100/02152/html/04/347.html2011.03.18. 7:04
Sopron Kecske templom: http://nol.hu/archivum/20101129-magyar_vall_a_sir_melyerol
Zoltai Lajos: Debreceni viselet  a XVI- XVII. században II. Női viselet. Ethnographia XLIX. (1938) 287-315.

Medieval leather shoes in the Hungarian Kingdom

Leather items has been used since prehistoric times. The Middle Ages have high level prosessing of leather and specialized preparation methods have been introduced. Guilds created various branches but we can't find leather maker guild in the sources, but tanners, shoemakers and their peers should be sought. However, before turning to the theme of the thesis, take a brief look to the medieval shoemaking, what kind of leather crafts  were exactly founded in medieval Hungary. 
The tanner, and then later called tobakos-tanner crafts founded thier guild in 14th century. During the 16th century, it became the kordovánkészítő, and in the 17th century, they formed a separate guild. The furriers and the pelt-makers were created in 14th century. Saddle makers were worked with leather, who appeared in the same century officially. In 15th century saddlers made their own guild, but the belt makers became independent only in modern times, in the 18th century. Leahter workers assisted to the processing of literacy because the vellum-makers  formed their own community in the 15th century. There are still leather dyers and case-makers in  the sources, but the latter three crafts were forgotten in the following centuries, and only during the 18-19th century were recuscticated. 
From the sources we can recontstruct the phases of shoemaking  in the Middle Ages were followings: selection of the suitable leather, cutting, then soaking the pieces in water, drying and then stretching. After they imposed the pieces more precise and sewn together. The fine pieces  were sewn together then with the lining . The pieces were turned out to their color side, and then gained the final size on the shoehorn. Of course, before the 14th century the shoemaker-cobbler's job was existed, but only this century professionalized and had a separate guild. Posteriorly they were called sandal-, clam- and shoemakerSeparated from them the boot-maker in 16th century as well. The Hungarian leather making was proved to be so successful in the 14th century sources in western Europe, and appeared an expression: "Hungarian-leather". It should be noted that in ethnographic researches Alice Gáborján  collected the exact progression of the prosessing of leather in a "Hungarian way". Although the first mention came from French sources in 18th century , we know, the procedure is likely to be earlier. They depilated insted of fermentation of the fresh, raw leather, then soaked it in a alum-salt solution , trampled it, and then dried. After drying kept the leather over ember, and the opened pores of the skin were involved with hot fat. However, we do not know exactly what kind of branches of leather-proccesing craft used this mode. Next to that it is not entirely certain that the shoes produced with this process.
We mainly have illustrations about the processing of shoemaking  and we can gain informations from the tools of ethnographic data and the still existing old shoemaking shop. The first depiction of making boots came from the turn of 12-13th century from the Patternbook of Rein. You can see in details the tools and the master himself sitting in the shop at the table in the page of Mendelschen Stiftung from 1388. From 15th century is one of the most important source about shoeshop is an unknown Spanish painter's image . You can find heelless, side- laced shoes on the table and the finished products, which were found in Buda castle.
In the castle medieval houses were explored and buried wells have been found, such as Dísz Square 8 and 10, Uri street 40, Ostrom street 13 and St. George's Square. In these wells are often remained  organic findings next to the pottery , so a significant amount of leather also have been found mixed with fragments and whole shoes. Archaeologists (Katalin Írásné Melis, Dorottya Nyékhelyi) mainly searched archaeological parallels - although we must not forget that there are not too much detailed data with regard to footwear. Main parallels came from North- Europe, for example Poland (due to climatic conditions in several of these findings have been found there), and formal versions from the old Soviet Union and Western Europe. On this basis, we can say that during the 13-14th century there were three determining European shoe-fashion  These were consisted of sandal, ankle-shoe and the ankle-bootThe sandal could have been strengthened to the legs in several ways. This type are still remained till nowadays. The ankle-shoes appeared about 9th century, at least in that form founded in Buda Castle. In Hungary, such as Poland (Wolin, Gdansk) appeared at the great achievements of the side-lace. The upper piece of the shoe cut from one leather piece and sewn at one line perpendicular or slightly oblique to the base. This uppers sewn to the sole and with this new method created shoes for the left and the right legs. In 11-12. century, the shanked shoes are still widespread, it has expanded the number of styles. Archaeological finds and in images the same type can be found, so there is a clear identification, it is known in the so-called. ankle-bootTwo types are known from this period: low stalk encompasses the ankle, or the shaft is rigid and the sides do not reach each other or turns out like a collar (such piece was found in excavations in Novgorod). During 12th century the types has slowly transformed, became slimmer as well as used various upper deposits. In Opole and Gdansk in Poland have been found the earliest mentioned footwear. The long nose and fashion became a general feature of the ankle-boots in the 13th century. In addition, the coarser shoe-types were survived, but the long, slender species were fashionable. The earliest shoe- "parallels"  in Buda were come up to light from  the excavations of Gdansk and Wolin in the 12th century archeological layers, and the later parallels from the 15th century were found in Warsaw Old Town.
Next to Western fashion trends, it's worth reviewing the shoes for the Hungarians , as far as resources allow it, because this could have affected to the Hungarian citizen's wear. We know that the Hungarian conquerer's  also known boots, shoes and ankle-shoes from archaeological traces. The conquerers had side-laced boots, made from leather or felt with whip up-nose. Of course, the social rank was symbolized by the quality of the material of the shoe, so the richer made shoes for example, from Bulgarian leather (Bagaria) but the lower social layers prepared it from simpler leather or felt. From the ages of Árpád-housewe have limited data about shoes. From the sources and pictorial archives we can see that they wore a kind of tunic with separate stems of pants and shoes. This was pushed out from the fashion in the 12th century by the Byzantine fashion. This is a clam decorated with purple lane and gold and  we can find good example  in the crypt of the cathedral of Pécs, and this may be the fashion, which was prohibited by King Kálmán I to clergymen. The researchers believe that these types (Conquest, Árpád and the Byzantine era) were present together, so in the Middle Ages there was a very variable shoe wearing habit.  During the era of Anjou kings the shoe-types hadn't become uniform and from the Képes Krónika (Illumintaed Chronicle if we translate it) we can prove it. The Chronicle - if it applied properly to the situation - depicted the figures in eastern and western (Italian) costumes. There are three kinds of  footwear in the Italian outfit. The most common - even in Europe -  the two stem-stockings, with leather sole, on which were drew calms. King Géza and King Solomon wore them in the Chronica. In addition to these, two types of shoes were worn in the pictures: a closed, plain or embroidered, ankle-shoes and in the wearing of the Knights appears red and white cross-banded shoes wore with yellow stockings.  The outfit of kings contrusted, for example King Ladislas at the coronation ceremony wore  blue stockings, closed peaked red ankle-shoes, while the upper classes wore colorful stockings without sandals. For the oriental dresses worn yet unspecified form, but also pointed-toed shoes, but  it cannot visible because of length of clothes. Based on the Illuminated Chronicle and wallpaintings from churches  the most common form of 13-14.th century was the clam (at least in military dress were often presented, which can be seen in the depictions of St. Ladislas).
Although the Illuminated Chronicle often schematizes, the excavations of Buda confirmed the authenticity of the images depicted about footwear. The findings were preserved, restored, and because many pieces were found, researchers had to pair the pieces, also had to look for pieces, but also managed to reconstruct four ankle-shoes. All were side-laced, closed upper-piece shoes, sometimes lining pieces are also paired through the seems. We can tell about the shoes from the wells of Buda that they followed the European fashion, so the side-laced shoes made up the vast majority of the artifacts. On the shoes lace holes still visible, so the were laces too in the well, but no traces were found. The excavations of the medieval Buda told us that ankle-shoes were worn as popularly as ankle-boots. Although in the Buda have not found an example yet, but here it is worth mentioning the so-called pattens and wooden slippers   which were pulled to the soft shoes to protect them On the ankle-boots there were button holes. The buttons usually made from leather strings, but there are examples of metal buckles, or leather banded solutions as well. At the end, we can conclude that in the Middle Ages there were commonly used forms.The comfortable shoes  appeared early in the middle of 12th  century when they began to use the more tailored pieces, which are also used in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Bibliography



Bogdán István: Kézművesek mestersége. Budapest, 1989.
Gáborján Alice: A magyar módra való bőrkészítés problematikája. In: Néprajzi Értesítő XLIV (1962), Budapest, 97-140.
Írásné Melis Katalin: A budai középkori lábbeliviselet. In: Archaeológiai Értesítő 100 (1973),     Budapest, 88-101.
Mocskonyi Melinda: XIV. századi bőrcipők az ostrom utcából. Budapest Régiségei 33 (1999), 
Budapest, 347-350.
Nyékhelyi Dorottya: Középkori kútlelet a budavári Szent György térről. Monumenta Historica 
Budapestinensia XII. (2003) Budapest
Francis Grew-Margareth de Neergaard: Shoes and pattens. Medieval finds from excavations in   ondon 2. London, 1988.