Zsolnay Ceramics, Pecs, Hungary 

The insulator you see pictured on the left is one of my most prized possessions. I bought it last summer at the National Show in Reno from Mr. Paul Bellanyi of Sacramento, California, who kindly furnished me with information on the manufacturer -- Zsolnay Ceramic Factory of Pecs, Hungary. I was particularly glad to have this insulator because I had visited Budapest in the summer of 1977 and had been so impressed with the people, the happy atmosphere of the city, the flowers everywhere, the beautiful countryside, etc., etc. As you know, Hungary is now under Communist control, but the spirit of the people has never been crushed! 

The Zsolnay factory was founded in 1851. At that time they manufactured building ceramics for the construction trade, as well as household goods. The founder of the factory was Micheal Zsolnay. Shortly after 1854 his sons, Ignacio and Williams Zsolnay, took over, and they developed it into a much larger factory -- it became quite a giant. At that time their main ambition was to give a highly artistic look to their product. Williams Zsolnay, especially, (1828-1900) worked very hard to manufacture the highest quality and the most refined artistic ceramics. 

In 1873, at the Big Fair in Vienna, Austria, Zsolnay had its first big success with the very fine quality and outstanding designs of its household goods. In 1878 at the World Exhibition in Paris, Zsolnay presented for the first time its very colorful porcelain stove ware. It had an ivory colored base and was decorated with flowers in original colors. All parts were coated with a very shiny glaze. These same items were also exhibited in Milan and Torino in Italy. 

In the early part of 1880 Zsolnay developed a product called PYROGRANIT. It was a heat and frost resistant material mostly used for making stoves and exquisite ornaments for decorations on buildings. The product was in great demand by the well known architects LECHNER, STEINDL, ALPAR, and HAUSZMANN. It is not known whether the insulator in question was made with pyrogranit, or even if cost would permit; but it is an interesting speculation, and would surely result in the "perfect insulator". 

The greatest and most important development in the history of the Zsolnay factory was the invention of EOSIN. It was developed by Williams Zsolnay with the help of Mr. VINCENS WARTHE and LUDWIG PETRICK. The product was ready for use in 1890. It was the foundation of the immortal name of Zsolnay. EOSIN was a highly glossy glaze which was available in green, blue, or red, and reflected all the colors of the spectrum. It would have been used on expensive figurines and household ornaments, however, rather than building ceramics for construction use. 

After the death of Williams Zsolnay in 1900, his son Micheal took over the plant management. In 1920 Micheal passed away, and the management of the plant was taken over by his two daughters, his sons-in-law, and later by the grandchildren. In the further development of the artistic part of their products, Micheal's daughters, TERESA (Mrs. MATTYASOVSKI) and JULIA (Mrs. SIKORSKI), played a very vital part. They favored Hungarian motifs; but later on some Persian and Hindu motifs were used. 

The factory is still in operation today. As I mentioned before, Hungary is one of the countries behind the Iron Curtain. In 1945, after World War II, when the Communists took over, the Zsolnay plant and all other factories became State property. According to Paul's information, the "new" management was desperately after the EOSIN formula, but it was a very closely guarded secret of the Zsolnay family, and no outsider had any success in getting ahold of the original formula. Persons who knew it and refused to turn it over to the new management eventually mysteriously vanished! 

All the old pieces of Zsolnay that remain in Hungary are registered with the State, even if they are privately owned. These are, of course, collector's items today, and are very expensive. They are closely watched, and if someone wants to take one out of the country, he has to get a special permit to do so. Paul is lucky enough to have a few of the old pieces in his possession, and he says that it is absolutely impossible to describe their beauty. He calls each piece a European Tiffany! 

Zsolnay products manufactured today are of a lot less quality in every way. Paul has a few of these also. The old pieces are easily recognizable -- the big difference being in the color and quality. 

Now that we've had our history lesson, let's look at the Zsolnay insulator, the one on the left in the photo. It resembles a fat white jug! It is definitely a power insulator. It bears the Zsolnay trademark and was made in 1960 at their plant in Pecs. A friend of Paul's brought it to him nine years ago, and, as you might have guessed, it is now chained to my shelf! 

The general shape of the insulator is not so unusual; in fact, it is quite commonly seen throughout Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. While going up a ski lift in Interlaken, Switzerland, I saw hundreds on power poles -- what is unusual is the size. It stands a husky 5-3/8" tall and is extremely thick, and consequently is quite heavy. (A real friend to haul that all the way home, eh?) The quality of the ceramic material used is definitely superior to the other European porcelains I have. 

The olive colored ink underglaze marking on the skirt is not too clearly discernable; but after seeing a sketch of the true Zsolnay trademark, I can see that they are one and the same. No other factory in Hungary makes ceramics in such large quantity for the industry as Zsolnay. 

My own trip to Hungary in 1977 resulted in the acquisition of the insulator pictured on the right. It is plain vanilla except for an H incuse marking on the dome. I don't know who manufactured it -- perhaps Zsolnay??, but the H stands for Hungary. 

"Andy" was our young officially appointed tour guide while in Budapest. He was a native Hungarian, and this city was his home. After he had grinned and rolled up his eyes a lot, he agreed to help me find an insulator. It turned out well because his friend came upon two of them while helping to tear down an old building across the street from our Youth Hostel. These he presented to me in a brown bag just as our group was about to board the train to Czechoslovakia. It didn't matter that they were filthy, covered with soot, filled with "critters", and cemented to heavy, ungainly metal pins they were beautiful!! 

- - - - - - - - -

Please make use of the following information on how to make shadow profile drawings of your foreign insulators -- and make two copies -- one for you and one for my file. Your help will be sincerely appreciated, and is really quite necessary if there is to be any sort of organization on foreign insulators. We've started, but the file is still pretty skinny! C'mon y'all!! Send to: Marilyn Albers, 14715 Oak Bend Dr., Houston, TX 77079. 

RECORDING INFORMATION ON INSULATORS 

Very good drawings of insulators can be made through the mail with the use of a "shadow profile" and carefully measured dimensions as follows: 

Place the insulator over a sheet of paper on the floor directly below a ceiling light fixture. Plumb the true vertical with a length of string. Unscrew all but one bulb in the fixture to eliminate multiple shadows. Prop up the top of the insulator so its axis will remain parallel with the floor without having to hold it. 

Now get down on your tummy and carefully trace onto the paper the shadow cast by the insulator. This should look like Figure A on the following page. Don't tweak up the lines on this profile or add any other detail to it (dimensions, hidden lines, etc.). 

Now make a separate sketch of the insulator as shown in Figure B on the following page. Sketch onto it the hidden lines not shown by the profile. Carefully measure the dimensions needed for us to complete the drawing, and add these to the Figure B sketch as shown. 

Also measure the overall insulator height, the overall base diameter, and the diameter at some indicated point near the insulator crown. (The drawings at the left are reduced in size to fit on this page.) 

If the insulator has a saddle top or other details which don't show up in the shadow profile, try to sketch those details on a separate sketch to show what they look like. Some oddball insulators with protruding pieces may also require an additional shadow profile looking down from the top, or a shadow profile viewing the insulator rotated 1/4-turn on its axis.

Lacking calipers, outside diameters can be measured by placing the insulator between two stacks of books and then measuring that distance. The depths of pinhole and recesses between petticoats can be measured by using a narrow strip of cardboard and then measuring its penetration. Measure or estimate the pinhole diameter (the minor thread diameter near the threads collar). 

Thread pitch (threads per inch) is helpful in attributing foreign insulators, since a given country usually uses one thread size throughout. England and related countries use English-unit threads (threads per inch). Most other European countries use metric threads (millimeters per thread). You can determine the exact thread type and its pitch as follows:

Smooth a small piece of new kitchen foil by rubbing it with your finger on a flat surface. For large pinholes, cut a 1/2" foil strip and insert it into pinhole. Press foil against thread with your finger. For small, deep pinholes, insert a 1/4" foil strip and then on top of that a 1/4" strip of innertube or other rubber (tweezers help here). Insert a round pencil on top of the rubber and press hard on the rubber while rolling the pencil and slightly rocking it back and forth. 

Measure from the foil the threads per inch (or twice the number per 1/2"). If that doesn't come out to a whole number, measure thread-to-thread in millimeters (or for 3 threads and divide by 3). If metric threads, this should come out a whole number. 

Copy all the insulator markings as best you can, and indicate location of markings on the insulator. On porcelains, indicate type of marking: incuse, underglaze ink, or sandblast. Good foil impressions of incuse markings can be made by repeatedly pressing smoothed foil hard with a rubber eraser. Dry a puddle of glue on the back for mailing.