Blue Dyeing Museum

The Papal Blue Dyeing Museum is located in the former papal Kluge blue dyeing plant building. The plant operated until 1956, after which the building complex and the entire equipment were placed under monument protection and in 1962 it opened its doors to visitors as a museum. In 1983, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Kluge company's existence, the building was renovated.

In addition to preserving the material memories of the former plant, it collects other memories and products related to blue dyeing, as well as the works of other blue dyeing workshops. Besides its permanent exhibitions (the history of the Kluge family, the presentation of technical details of blue dyeing; exhibition of Irén Bódy, a noteworthy artist, and her academic oeuvre; and the exhibition titled Blue Dyeing Workshops and Masters in Hungary) it also hosts temporary exhibitions of currently operating master blue dyers and other fields not unrelated to the topic.

History

The company was founded by Carl Friedrich Kluge – whose several ancestors were already involved in kelme painting – who arrived in Hungary from Soraub, Saxony in 1783 and established a blue dyeing workshop in Sárvár. In 1786 he moved to Pápá and created his plant on the site of the building that still stands today. At that time there were already 4–5 similar plants operating in Pápá, which shows that the demand for these “blue dyeing” materials was indeed great. (The term blue dyeing appears for the first time in 1770 in a complaint letter by István Bengely of Pápá, and then became widely used.)

Before Kluge arrived in Sárvár, he had traveled through numerous German, Swiss and Austrian cities and gathered a great deal of professional experience. His son, Kluge Károly followed his father's example, also traveled extensively throughout Europe and, in a sample book dating from 1809, compiled a collection of 72 textile pieces together with the recipes needed for their production. In the recipes he replaced the names of individual chemicals and plants with symbols to simplify repetitions. (At that time the chemical notation system used today had not yet been developed.) His sample book testifies to a level of professional preparation above average. According to the inventory taken in 1806, the blue‑dyeing workshop, equipped in a modern way according to the conditions of the time, was very profitable, and the Kluge family could have been counted among the wealthy. In 1896 the family's new multi‑storey residential building was completed, with the street‑front having the same storey height as the neighboring neo‑Gothic Reformed college building.

Kluge Károly died in 1895. His son, Kluge Ferenc, who between 1846 and 1850 also roamed Europe as a “wandering apprentice” and learned every detail of kelme dyeing, took over the management of the plant and continued the work together with his mother. Exploiting the economic conditions of the time, he continued the modernization already begun by his father and the acquisition of new machines. On the 100th anniversary of the plant's founding, in 1883 production had risen to such a level that in 1884 it was classified among the leading companies under the name “Blaudruck‑Färberei”. At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries the plant was further expanded. The water wheels previously used were removed, and the roller mill, the starch machines, and the drying cylinders were driven by steam engines. The plant had already possessed a wooden‑frame, hand‑operated perrotine press, which in 1912 was replaced by a metal‑frame machine of German manufacture.

Ferenc Kluge died in 1923. He was the last male member of the family who worked in the trade. His daughter, Matild Kluge, married a military tailor, Béla Karcsay, who, after his discharge, took over the same plant in 1923, but since he was not professionally qualified, he learned it from the assistants and later took a professional exam. The plant was actually run by one of the assistants, József Kovács, until 1945.

After the Second World War production declined. The craft had been carried on for seven generations in the Kluge family since the ancestors and they continued their activity until 1956. In 1956 the building and its original equipment were declared a monument and, with state support, it was restored in 1961–1962 and declared a museum. Previously it was under the management of the Textile Research Institute, until the end of 2010 it was managed by the Textile Museum Foundation, which also includes the Budapest Textile Museum, and at the beginning of 2011 the municipality of Pápa took it over.

Other museum-type blue‑dyeing workshops, exhibitions

Some of the blue‑dyeing masters working today also continue an old family tradition and their workshops contain the original equipment and machines of the workshops. Among these workshops not just one is open to visitors and the masters are happy to show the traditional and modern procedures and equipment. In addition, the open‑air museum in Szentendre also presents a blue‑dyeing workshop from Nagykőrös, which originally belonged to the Vladár family.

In Gyula Gál’s blue‑dyeing master workshop in Dunaföldvár visitors can become acquainted with this particular branch of folk textile art.

The Tolnai blue‑dyeing workshop was founded in 1810 by András Kintner, a blue‑dyeing master. Currently the 7th generation works with the original machines, technology and printing rollers.

In the Nagynyárád exhibition blue-dye workshop, the workshop's equipment and how they work with the original printing blocks can be seen. The workshop was originally started by János Sárdi, Master of Folk Art, in 1947; today his grandson, Andor Auth, Young Master of Folk Art, continues the craft. Of the nearly five hundred printing blocks, most are about 100 years old, but there are 150–160‑year‑old ones, and also some that were already made by János Sárdi.

The Kovács family of Tiszakécske has been engaged in blue dyeing since 1878. The workshop founded in Tiszakécske in 1926 has equipment and form sets from the early 20th century that belong not only to the domestic but also to the European industrial‑historical rarities. The workshop owner, Miklós Kovács, received the title Master of Folk Art in 1985.

In Bácsalmas the Skorutyák family blue‑dye workshop can be visited. The family has been practicing this craft without interruption in the same building since 1879. In addition, they collect material memorabilia of blue dyeing.