Folk Ceramics



In the Middle Ages pottery guilds already worked in Gyula. The Ottoman Occupation left brilliant craftsmanship in our region as all over the Great Plains. Our county is the connection point of the pottery centres (Hódmezõvásárhely and Mezõtúr) which are artistically determining. In the first half of the 19th century the communities of the firmly established and urbanizing peasant estates had the requirements of their own potter’s craft. The people in Tótkomlós and Csaba went to Vásárhely, the ones in Szarvas and Berény entered service as apprentices in Mezõtúr in terms of regional attractions. Békéscsaba and Tótkomlós had specific forms, colours and motifs adjusting to the local taste; most efficiently in Tótkomlós where six or eight potters worked by the middle of the 19th century and created a formal representation, like special pots (komatál) and chimney ornaments in their workshops as the development of the technology of Vásárhely. The most popular colour combinations of the ceramics in Tótkomlós are black, red, green and yellow that is in harmony with the Slovakian home textiles and costumes. Their typical blossoms made furrier motifs live longer. Characteristic ornaments prevailed on bottles: the Slovakian writing and the divided dark and light toned halves of life tree, the motifs of cocks and leaves were framed by escutcheon. On the bottles of Szarvas, that has relations with the bottles of Mezõtúr, Slovakian and Hungarian writing can be read. The most beautiful green enamelled bottles of Csaba have flower and relieflike ornaments. On the pieces made for either Slovakian or Hungarian customers the Slovakian word "year" (roku) was indicated. The mixed styled pottery of the turn of the century showed the weakening of traditions. In the second half of the 20th century folk industrial artists got back to the roots of the profession, such as Tóth István in Szarvas evoked the figure world of the traditional folk ceramics.