Index – Culture – Investment, the price of which will never be recovered, but still worth it

It was hard to imagine looking at ceramics for nearly an hour and a half without getting bored. Yet it happened and we were surprised!

We visited the Kőrössy Villa, located at the Városligeti tree line, which has one of the largest private Zsolnay collections in the country. You can visit the exhibition in groups of fifteen people, which is only possible if you register in advance. They take this so seriously that they almost didn’t even let us in until after we said the magic word, which read: Magdolna the poet. She is the lady who showed us around the impressive place and told us a lot about the unique works.

The building was opened to the public last fall, and since its opening, tickets have been sold out weeks in advance for all announced dates. “The Collector’s House” it is full of such values ​​that one hardly dares to hold the doorknob, because at the end of the day there is a bill that can take years to pay off.

Plants, animals, faces

The villa is one of the city’s most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings, designed by Albert Kálmán Kőrössy for his own use. Construction began in 1899, and he took possession a year later. He got married that year and had two daughters. From then on, the house provided them with the living space of the upper class. After the nationalization, the villa became the kindergarten of the printing union, and since it fully met the expectations, no changes were made to it. One of the most impressive parts is the upper facade on the right, which collapsed during the Second World War, but was later reconstructed based on a photograph found in an album published in Vienna in 1904. A sculptor, a painter and an architect can be seen on the work, and it is most likely that Kőrössy depicted himself in the latter.

Entering the hall, we can see the mentioned photo. You can clearly see the window panes made by the glass painter and mosaic artist Miksa Róth, which were broken during the war, but based on the photo, they were also able to be remanufactured. The huge, beautiful window in the hall, however, is original, as it was removed from the metal structure before the arrival of the front and preserved in the basement. They did well, because it is now considered one of the main attractions.

On the ground floor is the Kőrössy salon event space, which hosts cultural events once or twice a month. The most beloved pieces of their picture collection were exhibited here: paintings by Géza Faragó, József Rippl-Rónai, Béla Iványi-Grünwald and József Egri are also on display, but the cloud-like wall painting also adds to the atmosphere of the ground floor. And in one room

Upstairs, three rooms were furnished with the most beautiful pieces from the historical period of Zsolnay. Vilmos Zsolnay made artistic ceramics instead of simple utility objects. In a decade, production technology has developed so much that it has also given new possibilities to decoration. At the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, they already won a medal with their porcelain faience products. From then on, his two daughters, Teréz and Júlia, became involved in the life of the factory as decor designers. The decoration of countless objects was drawn, and the first so-called master pieces were painted with their own hands.

Teréz was very interested in folk decorative elements, she put together a complete collection of ceramics, embroidered wall hangings and laces used as clothing decorations. Using these motifs, he made his first ceramic ornaments, many of which can be seen in the villa and most likely in our grandmothers’ kitchens.

While Teréz’s works were dominated by plant forms, her younger sister Júlia was more interested in oriental motifs. The pieces he designed featured birds, from roosters to firebirds. He made them based on the samples seen in the collections exhibited in museums in Vienna, Munich and Paris.
Júlia’s works are like paintings, as if they were presenting a picture, while Teréz wanted to decorate.

One of the most beautiful artifacts is a huge vase, the origin of which is shown in a photograph. There were two of them in the lobby of the Gellért hostel. In the factory, they kept their books precisely, each piece has a shape number and a decor number; and in the trade books, it is written on whose order how many of them were produced. Four copies of the mentioned vase were made, two of which were in Gellért, and there is no trace of the others. One can currently be seen in the Catering Industry Museum, presumably its counterpart. Its price is around HUF 18 million.

The most expensive item

András Szabó, who has been collecting Zsolnay porcelain for almost fifty years, acquires the works of art at auctions. Around the time of the regime change, it still had around two hundred units. After a year or two, the art dealers already knew what he was looking for and what he liked to buy. From then on, he no longer went after the various works of art, but they offered them to him, so the number of pieces increased exponentially. Currently approx. a collection of thousands, of which 550-560 pieces can be viewed.

It would be an exaggeration to say that we looked at all of them in detail, because it really is a lot, but luckily the ceramics made in different eras are completely different from each other, so the one and a half hour exhibition didn’t break into uncontrollable yawning.

The most valuable Zsolnay porcelain that can be viewed here is the so-called elephant vase, which

This is the highest knockdown price ever for a Zsolnay piece. The special feature of this object is not only the elephant and the shape, but also the fact that the image was created from eosin, which is interesting because each color comes out at a different temperature. In order to have a painting-like appearance, it goes into the oven as many times as we can see the colors on it.

During the tour of the “vase plaza”, we were given a very detailed presentation on the production, decoration and placement of porcelains. Magdolna Költő knew the answer to every question immediately, it was felt that this was not only her job, but also her passion.

We cannot say that we can get into the sanctuary for pennies, but maintaining the villa does not cost two forints, and the collection does not grow by itself.

Scandal album – 150 paintings with educational and funny lessons

I WILL BUY IT

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