Tarsolybearers’ Homepage

Home
Forum
The Tarsoly
Our Findings
Our Hussar Sabretaches
Illustrative Art
Contemporary Craft
Prepare my own Tarsoly

The tarsoly cover plate of Szolnok-
Strázsahalom

Leather tarsoly

A navvy profiteered of our national treasures.

The tarsoly cover plate of Szolnok- Strázsahalom

Photo: József Hapák, data: Ancient Hungarians, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum 1996

Provenance:
Strázsahalom, at the left bank of the river Zagyva, North to Szolnok, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county.

Discovery of the finding:
In June, 1912, The Hungarian National Museum purchased a find assemblage from Imre Vaszkó that had come to light during dam building. This set of goods contained the tarsoly plate too. The finds suggest that they come from more different graves. It is more than likely that at least three graves in this burial ground were destroyed.

Material:
Silver gilt frontplate, with two equal sized copper backplates.

Size:
143x112 mm.

Preparation method:
The backplate was held to the foreplate with eighteen rivets. The elegantly crafted frontplate was placed on a bed of pitch and the background of the design was sunk into the metal using a hammer. The veins of the leaves, as well as the palmette bunches in the centre and in the four corners were raised. The contours of the leaves are picked out with hatching. The sunken background was lavishly gilded. The technical elaboration and design of the plate is much similar to the tarsoly plate find of Túrkeve.

Detail of the tarsoly cover plate of Szolnok- Strázsahalom

Photo: József Hapák, data: Ancient Hungarians, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum 1996

Drawing of the tarsoly cover plate of Szolnok- Strázsahalom

Csaba Nyers: Introduction to Corn Kitchen

Artwork:
The foliate design is arranged around a palmette bunch in the centre and in the four corners. This composition is reminiscent of the mount-ornamented tarsoly-s where the lid was adorned with one mount in the centre and diamond-shaped mounts in the four corners. (see the find of Újfehértó) A bunch of palmette leaves, their tips twirling inwards, rise out of the central palmette and from the four corners. Similarly to the looped palmette and tendril pattern of the Galgóc plate this intricate floral design is also a masterful evocation of the Tree of Life.

Usage:
The owner of the plate must have been someone of very high rank. Some of the silver rivets were still in their original position when the plate reached the museum, now, however only a fragment survives in the upper corner. It seems probable that the rivet heads were ornamented.

Inventory number:
Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Budapest - 58/1912.1.

Literature:
Jelentés...1912, picture No. 39, 5.; Fettich 1937, 81, LXI-LXIII. t.; 1942, 14, 14. t.; László 1944, XXX. t.; 1970, XIV. t; Dienes 1967, 16; 1972, 9. t.

Detail of a former map
The provenance of the tarsoly finding can be found on this map detail of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county from 1927.
Source: Map-collection of the National Széchényi Library of Budapest

© Legal Warning. Pictures and descriptions originating from other authors have been used on this homepage by the indication of the name of author and source. In case of any further use of these web pages, legal regulation of copyright must be respected in all cases.