The summarizing headline includes several collections and collection units, so in addition to the actual Collection of Industrial History, there is the Locksmithing Collection, the Collection of Modern Age Iron Chests, the Collection of Modern Age Bells, and the Collection of Punishment Instruments.
In 1952, the division of the then Historical Repository resulted in the establishment of the modern Modern Department, and within that a separate Collection of Industrial History was formed . The collection is a repository of objects and documents related to the history of Hungarian craft industry and, to a lesser extent, the history of the Hungarian manufacturing industry. Its notable pieces are the relics of guild history, the equipment and tools of workshops representing certain crafts. Its material includes the relics of the diverse history of industry and technology that came to the museum through excavation, purchase, and donation. The highlights are the masterpieces of Hungarian craft industry, and industrial development of the 19th and 20th centuries. It preserves 17th–20th century memorabilia.
Contact: Dr. Robert Szvitek, szvitek.robert@hnm.hu
Locksmithing collection
Due to their uniformity and number, the locksmithing relics form a separate collection. As a result of archaeological excavations conducted in Hungary and museum collecting work – purchases, donations – over the past century and a half, the Hungarian National Museum has grown a significant locksmithing collection. Its material consists of the tools and products of the Hungarian locksmithing industry with outstanding masterpieces among them. The collection primarily includes products of the locksmithing trade from the 13th to the 20th century. Its main material groups are masterpieces of blacksmithing, beautifully crafted keys, locks, padlocks. At the end of World War II, the museum building and some of its collections were seriously damaged during the siege of Budapest. The devastating fire in 1945 caused great damage to the locksmithing products placed in the Lapidarium, and about 500 objects were destroyed. A separate unit of the collection is two dozen waffle irons from the 17th–19th centuries.
Other collections
During the reorganizations that took place in the 1950s, the self-contained Collection of Modern Age Iron Chests was also created, which preserves memorabilia from the 17th–19th centuries. The individual pieces came to the museum from various excavations or through purchases or donations starting in the second half of the 19th century. Among its outstanding artefacts are the iron chest that once served to store the Hungarian coronation insignia, as well as the so-called Rákóczi treasure chest.
The Collection of Modern Age Bells, which also owes its existence to the aforementioned reorganizations, contains a few items, as does the Collection of Punishment Instruments, whose holdings date from the 18th–20th centuries. It contains interrogation/torture devices, instruments of humiliation, execution, and auxiliary instruments of detention.
A masterpiece of ironwork is the forged locksmith's shop sign in the shape of a rococo key, which dates back to 1766.
On the front, in a baroque frame, are the traditional emblems of the rope makers: a heart-shaped shield with a hackle, two crossed twiating irons and an arrow. The ornate front is accompanied by a simpler back with the date 21 June 1776, the names of the foremen, and a scene perpetuating the custom of perambulating with the sign: the young journeyman carrying the call sign hands it over to the guild master standing in front of his house, while they greet each other, and then the journeyman presumably fulfills the aim of perambulating: the verbal transmission of the summons and invitation.
The bootmakers's guild was the largest guild in Hungary, consequently, several of their badges have survived, including this one purchased in 1903, in the center of which, on a richly decorated coat of arms, there are boots, a larger and a smaller knife for cutting leather, a smoother, and an awl for sewing.
A model of a spring hammer made of steel and brass, placed on a marble slab and inscribed "Ajax", by the Hungarian Steel Works. It is still functional today.
A so-called interrogation belt, probably used for torture. The belt itself is not a torture device, but “merely” an aid that forced the victim to remain in the same position during torture. The padlock secured device had separate straps for both the upper and lower arms to ensure complete immobility.
A simply decorated iron chest in which the Hungarian royal crown was buried near Orsova in August 1849. The memoirs of Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere provide detailed information about the event of its hiding and finding.
