Zsolnay Ceramics Factory, Pécs

Fülszöveg

The Zsolnay factory of Pécs is the national pride of Hungarian industry as well as of Hungarian design and applied arts. It is well known even beyond the country's borders. The plant was etablished in the mid-19th century and is still working today. The firm developed under the management of Vilmos Zsolnay into the leading enterprise of Hungarian arts and crafts. Developing experimentally the so-called high-fire glaze technology, the factory produced faience in such vigorous colours that its beauty rivalled oriental porcelain. In addition to tableware and luxury ware the decoration of buildings, of electric insulators, stoves and various pipes was also significant. This range, or to use a modern expression, product diversity, not only resulted in profitable production, but made possible continuous artistic experiments and technological research work. The Zsolnay ware displayed at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition was a great success and the products began conquering the world... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The Zsolnay factory of Pécs is the national pride of Hungarian industry as well as of Hungarian design and applied arts. It is well known even beyond the country's borders. The plant was etablished in the mid-19th century and is still working today. The firm developed under the management of Vilmos Zsolnay into the leading enterprise of Hungarian arts and crafts. Developing experimentally the so-called high-fire glaze technology, the factory produced faience in such vigorous colours that its beauty rivalled oriental porcelain. In addition to tableware and luxury ware the decoration of buildings, of electric insulators, stoves and various pipes was also significant. This range, or to use a modern expression, product diversity, not only resulted in profitable production, but made possible continuous artistic experiments and technological research work. The Zsolnay ware displayed at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition was a great success and the products began conquering the world market. Examining the entire history of the factory, art historian Eva Hárs has written a high level scholarly study. On the basis of family reminiscences, archival investigations and other sources, she reconstructs the development of the factory while stressing the nature of the finest products of ceramic art.
She follows the artistic production from period to period, analysing the activity of the designers. The ceramic art of the Zsolnay factory drew on different sources: it was influenced by folk art as well as by oriental and classical culture. The most renowed products, however, are the pieces born around the turn of the 19-2 Oth centuries, whose form, conceived in the spirit of Art Nouveau, was elaborated with the aid of the Zsolnay factory's unique technology, eosin glaze with metallic lustre. The Pécs factory had its golden age about a century ago. Today the entreprise, recently privatised, has new prospects for the future. In this objective account of Eva Hárs we become acquainted with the struggle the descendants of the founders experienced to maintain their unique heritage, and, in the recent past, to ensure its revival. This book has this double aim as well. In addition to surveying the past with a thorough and readable text, archival photos of the factory and 120 coloured pictures of the luxury ware, it also aims in its own way to help secure the future of the Zsolnay factory. Vissza