Cseréppipák a hajdani váradi Szent László-székesegyházból
Clay Tobacco Pipes from the One-time Szent László Cathedral of Oradea

Summary/Abstract: Based on the donator’s person, previously Oradea (Várad) was thought to be the place of provenience of the clay tobacco pipes from the Museum of Applied Arts of Budapest. This presumption was also confirmed by the present typological study and some written references found in the museum. The later discovered written and visual sources have undoubtedly proven and specified: the pipes are from the excavations of Flóris Rómer undertaken in 1883 inside the fortification of Oradea, in the area of the former cathedral. Rómer’s drawings of the finds have considerably enlarged the spectrum of the known pipes. Thus this group of finds offers a wider picture of Oradea, that before was characterized only by a few pieces. The new objects, dated mostly in the Ottoman period, helped to understand the origins and evolution of several pipe types from Hungary and from the Ottoman Empire. Thus it seems sure that pipe workshops of the Thaldrom filtered and altered the influences from the Empire and from the West towards their own taste. Next to such internal evolutions of the imperial ones, several locally formed series of different types of pipes can be also traced. In some cases of locally developed forms and decorative motifs even their chronological significance can be formulated. There were found also several pipes of one (imperial-) nationwide type that were all produced with the same model or at the same workshop. These are really rare, so most probably they were made at a local workshop. This seems to be further confirmed by the abundance of the formal variations within this one type. At the other imperial categories a major role of trade can be supposed, but in the case of Oradea the lack of commerce would be surprising. Regarding the analogies of the pipes from outside Oradea, the dominance of the Northeast-Thraldom is remarkable. This confirms the new theory of the regional character of this collection of types. Thus it becomes possible to separate the groups of regionally and locally spread pipes. With the help of the collected national data a clearer picture can be drawn about the territorial frequency of several types, which proves the theory of regionality (the dominant presence of local variations and the proportions of types). The map of the density also shows the area of origin and diffusion of each type.

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