Art Pottery of America

By Federico Santo and John Gacher. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1998. 192-page hardback, 410 color illus. ISBN 0764305344. $49.95

Edited by āva Csenkey and ńgota Steinert. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. 268-page hardback, 249 color and 41 b/w illus. ISBN 0300097402. $75.00

My first experience with Zsolnay ceramics left an indelible impression on my soul. I remember the vase like it was yesterday. It had a blue iridescent glazed vessel with a golden-green iridescent glazed dragon, modeled in high relief, draped completely around the vase with sharp wings enveloping the vase. The moment was magical, and changed my life. I started acquiring every reference book with even the smallest inclusion of information on the Zsolnay Manufactory of Pecs, Hungary. At the time there were two exhibition catalogs, one Italian (1985) and one German (1986). In 1992 the curator from the Applied Arts Museum in Budapest, āva Csenkey, wrote the first serious book on Zsolnay, focused on the factories Art Nouveau period works. Written in Hungarian, this book, titled Zsolnay: Szecesszios Keramiak, is the foundation of all the books currently available.

It is 1998, and I still don’t know anything factual about Zsolnay because Italian and German are too much of an effort to struggle through, and Hungarian is, well, out of the question. Then two collectors and dealers of antique Zsolnay ceramics from Newport, Rhode Island, Federico Santo and John Gacher, write the first English text on the subject titled Zsolnay Ceramics: Collecting a Culture (with price guide) published by Schiffer Publishing. For starters, I believe you can tell much from the cover of a book. So let’s first look at the cover of Zsolnay Ceramics. The cover shot is a confusing array of 120 years of pottery poorly arranged and blocking the nicest example of the entire group, a masterpiece tile with green iridized "Alice in Wonderland" like rabbits beneath psychedelic clouds and a blood red marbleized sky. The Art Nouveau font is pleasing but the "with price guide" is a sure sign of an impending disappointment. The best part of the cover is the photo of the authors on the back cover. John and Rico are posed flanked by some of their collection in the rich environment of what is their own home. This gives the book the personality a book on collecting should have.

At 192 pages, Zsolnay Ceramics has ample space to present the subject of collecting Zsolnay pottery. The subject is divided into three sections- Historical works, Art Nouveau (Secessionist) works and 1920 to the present, with a historical introduction and a section on marks. Period photographs of the factory workers, artists and decorators add life to the introductory text. Dividing the factory’s production into the three sections is logical, and the text for each artistic period is poignant. What is most important about this book is the collection of pottery photographed. The collection is reflective of the wide range in styles produced as well as the artistically exquisite and technically masterful ceramics created at Zsolnay.

The downside is the book (in some cases, the fault lies with Schiffer, not the authors) are the absurd price guide that unsuccessfully attempts to apply a stamp collector mentality to collecting art; an unattractive layout; a lack of professional photography in which vases are often photographed lying on their sides; and odd bold highlighted phrases like "precious Egyptian series" (used without explanation). It is an extremely amateurish book, and I love it from cover to cover. It is the first, it is clearly a labor of love and passion, and it is an absolute must for pottery collectors and Art Nouveau enthusiasts both.

It is now 2002; I have been approached to financially sponsor an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture in New York which is the first American retrospective of Zsolnay Ceramics and opening in the fall. The exhibition is being curated by āva Csenkey of the Budapest Applied Arts Museum and corresponded to the 150th anniversary of the Zsolnay manufactory. Hungarian Ceramics from the Zsolnay Manufactory, published by Yale University Press, is the 268-page exhibition catalog and the first definitive book on Zsolnay pottery. The cover is a detail shot of a masterpiece from the collection of the museum in Budapest with 5 detailed high relief butterflies applied to the shoulder of a marbled "Labrador" glazed cache pot. The cover tells me that this is a serious book. Written by 14 authors, each an expert in the history of the Zsolnay factory, this book, which was only published in English, is scholarly and detailed. The photography is a consistently dry cataloging of the art, but like the book as a whole it is professional, and scholarly. Finally, here is a book that accurately tells the story of one of history’s most important ceramics manufactories, from the point of view of the foremost authorities on the subject. The book catalogs many of the world’s finest examples of the work, and describes each in complete detail. The only subject missing from Hungarian Ceramics from the Zsolnay Manufactory is a section on the marks of the factory. It is strange that such a thorough and scholarly book could miss such an important subject.

Today I have a total of 9 books on Zsolnay, including three published this year alone. Each book is important to me, but the undisputed heavyweight champ of Zsolnay books remains the Bard exhibition catalog. If you are interested in the subject, Zsolnay Ceramics, from the boys in Newport, is a necessary supplement to the Bard catalog for two reasons: it has a section on marks, and the collection of pieces is much more diverse: as any collector knows, we can never have enough pictures.