Zsolnay

Miklos Zsolnay, who had operated a ceramics factory elsewhere in Hungary, relocated his business to Pecs, a town in southwest region. His son Ignaz directed the firm from 1854 until 1868, when he turned it over to his younger brother, Vilmos (pictured). Until then, the Zsolnay firm struggled financially to keep up with cheaper imports. To address problems of expensive clays and a shallow talent pool, Vilmos provided the factory with a ready supply of raw materials and ceramists by acquiring riverbeds and other appropriate sites and establishing a school at the factory. Because of technical advances in Zsolnay's architectural ceramics—including beautifully decorated, freeze-resistant roof tiles and the production of durable stoneware road cobbles—the factory was internationally acclaimed. The mass-production of standard industrial and architectural wares provided financial security and supported the art ceramics division of the company throughout the 1870s. In the 1880s, the factory collaborated with architects on building-specific terra cotta architectural ornaments and in 1895, prompted by a widespread boom in the building of city apartment blocks, the firm undertook the mass production of interior tiles and bathroom fixtures.

The art pottery produced during the period of Vilmos's leadership was of the highest technical and aesthetic order. As in all of the leading European ceramics factories of the day, Zsolnay designers expressed their artistry through historical pluralism, adopting forms and decorations from Chinese, Japanese, Arab, Turkish, and Moorish sources. Their masterpieces won awards at the Weltausstellung Wien, 1873; The Exposition Universelle de Paris. 1878; The International Exhibition, Sydney, 1879-1880; International Exhibition Melbourne 1880-1881, Exposition Universelle Paris 1889; the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893; Exposition Universelle d'Anvers (Antwerpe), 1894; Exhibition d'Nice, 1894-1895; and Exposition Internationale de Bruxelles 1897.

Zsolnay's worldwide acceptance was due in large part to Viennese merchant Ernst Wahliss, who was Zsolnay's sole international representative. In 1883, he opened a shop in London and stepped up the demand for series of items in a particular style. The English were particularly fond of the Persian style, while Vilmos Zsolnay preferred designs based on Hungarian peasant traditions. In any case, the factory turned out heavily-ornamented sets of tableware and vessels, toilet articles, lamps, and tiles in a wide range of historical styles.

In 1889, while exhibiting in Paris, Vilmos was mesmerized by Clément Massier's 'reflective-metallic' glazes and conducted the first successful experiments in iridescent glazes at the Zsolnay factory soon afterward. In 1893 ceramics chemist Vinsce Wartha developed a rich red iridescent glaze, marketed as eosin. The term, named after the Greek goddess Eos, goddess of dawn, was soon to be used to denote the rainbow-hued iridescent finish. Used in combination with etching and gold luster, it appeared for the first time in winter of 1899-1900 in Vienna. Following the trends of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil, the newly developed glaze was applied to fantastic sculptural works, including a lustrous golden charger with fully articulated red lobster at the rim and a platter in the shape of a coiled cobra.

Objects such as these were extremely difficult and expensive to produce. The process of production involved many artisans and technicians. A great number of these pieces were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1900, and the Exposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna, Torino, 1902. Despite the variety of form, decoration, and subject, almost every piece to emerge from the factory is instantly recognizable as the product of Zsolnay.

Some of the noteworthy artists who worked at the Zsolnay factory were Tade Sikorski (1852-1940), who married Julia Zsolnay, daughter to Vilmos, and became the principle designer for the factory from 1890-1910; Jozsef Rippl-Ronai (1861-1927), a Nabis painter who designed and painted ceramics; Walter Crane (1845-1915), Pre-Raphaelite painter, visited and worked at the factory; Sandor Apati-Apt (1870-1916), symbolist painter (Abt's designs are some of the most dynamic and prized by Zsolnay collectors); Lazslo Mack (1876-1963), who designed for the Zsolnay factory during the Art Nouveau period, and is most well known for he figural ceramic vessels; Mihály Kapás Nagy, Henrik Darilek; and Julia Zsolnay (1856-1950), the second daughter born to Vilmos Zsolnay, she was an important designer and painter.

From the 1950s onward, as the political and cultural atmosphere in Hungary became more open, the Zsolnay factory permitted designers to produce work that explored modern abstraction. Guest artists like Victor Vasarely and Eva Zeisel conceived beautiful pieces that revived earlier Zsolnay organic shapes and metallic glazes. Other designers revitalized the manufactory's architectural ceramic output, referring to the tradition of producing vividly colored weather-resistant tiles and ornamentation, examples of which can still been seen on buildings throughout Hungary.