Schiffer Mansion, 19 Munkácsy Mihály street

Source: egykor.hu

The Schiffer Mansion on Munkácsy street can be found in the elegant quarter of Theresatown, a few minutes from City Park. It was commissioned for by Miksa Schiffer railway engineer, rich businessman and patron, to be built for his family. His wish was for a home, which had everything in harmony with everything.

The house was built from 1910 to 1912 in late-Art Nouveau-style, as per the plans of József Vágó, who was one of the most significant architects of his time. His name is attached to building designs like the Gutenberg House, Gresham Mansion or Árkád Market.

 
Miksa Schiffer (left), the former owner of the mansion, who commissioned József Vágó architect (right) for the work
Source: novekedes.hu, Wikipedia

Schiffer Mansion is one of the most important works of Vágó, a perfectly homogenous creation. It served as a model for the Stoclet Mansion in Brussels, designed by Josef Hoffmann. Vágó hired the best artists of the Hungarian Avant-garde for the design and ornamentation of the interiors, creating a true “total art” (gesamtkunstwerk) construct. The outside differs greatly from the surrounding buildings and is barely noticeable from the street. As opposed to earlier works of Vágó, the façade is unusually puritan, the walls covered with simple stone tiles. The façade is also quite asymmetric because of the interior organization.

   
Source: egykor.hu, Wikimedia, baratsagklub.hu

Inside, Vágó designed the space so that the works of all the hired artists and the motifs of Hungarian folk art could dominate it well. He was trying to achive completeness and a united style. Every element of the ornaments is a variation of one main theme: the renewal of the arts and the blooming of the new artistic ideal, which recreates the heavenly harmony of man and nature.

   
Source: budapest100.hu, szecessziosmagazin.hu, bagyinszki.eu (Zoltán Bagyinszki)

Besides the art pieces and the rugs, the whole furnishing of mansion was designed by Vágó. Outside of the tables, chairs and credenzas, the wall covering, the mother of pearl inlays on the furniture, the majolica covering, the textiles, the chandeliers and the wall sconces, too.

On various points of the mansion the popular material of Hungarian Art Nouveau, the Zsolnay-ceramic, can be found, which Vágó loved using in various ways. The floral and fauna motifs made of Zsolnay ceramics are on the coverings of the hall, the tub of the bathroom, the pillars of the loggia and other places in the building. Through the geometric ornaments of the house, the effect of the Wiener Werkstätte school of art can be traced. For example the black and white checkered frames on the cupboard door and tabletops are typical of this style.

 
Source: muemlekvadasz.hu (excerpts), gyujtemeny.imm.hu

The ground floor was built for the purpose of social intercourse (hall, dining room, small parlour room, great parlour room, study), while the first floor was for the intimate family life (bedrooms, children’s rooms, dressing room, bathrooms, living room, breakfast room). The basement held the apartment of the caretaker, the kitchen, the boiler room and the playroom (billiard room). The modern features of the mansion were the air heating system and the dumbwaiter, but neither of them can be found inside.

  
Source: muemlekvadasz.hu (excerpts)

The original state is preserved most in the hall. The left wall of the room with an area of 13x9.5 m and height of 7.4 m is occupied by a huge lead glass window, the work of Károly Kernstok, 7 m wide and almost the full height of the room. It was restored in the 1980s. Its theme is the depiction of the lost “ideal world”. On the wall of the entrance is the panel painting of Kernstok: in the center stands the owner, Miksa Schiffer, who is depicted as the ideal engineer in portrait-style. In the background are workers and a viaduct, hinting at Schiffer’s profession.

      
Source: imagine.hu, szecessziosmagazin.hu, varosban.blog.hu

Opposite the window is the white Carrara marble flower bowl by Vilmos Beck Fémes, with male and female figures on its sides. Another of his works, which cannot be seen today, was the marble fountain in the center with a bronze figure at each end. What remained intact by some miracle, and is still in the hall was the sitting male figure of white marble by the entrance stairs, which was created by Miklós Ligeti sculptor.

 
The panel painting called Summer by Béla Iványi Grünwald (left) and the painting of the Schiffer ladies by József Rippl-Rónai (right) out of the paintings owned by the Hungarian National Gallery
Source: Hungarian National Gallery (mng.hu)

In its current state, not much was preserved from its original furniture. Many paintings were given to the Hungarian National Gallery, including the panel painting called Summer by Béla Iványi Grünwald and the painting by József Rippl-Rónai of the wife and four daughters of Miksa Schiffer. The doors still have the mother of pearl inlays and the escutcheons with the initials SM, some of the rooms have the original (wood or Zsolnay-ceramics) wall covering, and the ornamental glass windows and railings of the staircase, the wrought-iron balcony rails and the decorated marble floor in the hall can still be seen.

     
Source: varosban.blog.hu, imagine.hu

Of all the furniture, only the specially made sideboard remains. The Schiffer family stayed in the mansion until 1945, which is when a bomb hit the building in World War II, and the original condition of it can only be seen on photos from back then. After World War II, the mansion was nationalized and one more floor was built on top of the two-story house – with the construction of a rooftop.

 
Source: kozterkep.hu, egykor.hu, imagine.hu

In the 1970s, a new wing was attached to the house in multiple stages during further reconstructions, then the former rooms of the Schiffer family were split up into office spaces. The nationalization happened in 1952 then, from 1958 until the Regime Change, the house became the headquarters of the company Hungarofruct (Vegetable-Fruit Cooperative Export). In 1994, the Customs and Finance Guard (“Vám- és Pénzügyőrség” or “VP” for short – ed.) took over, starting the restoration works to return to the original condition. In the following year, 1995, the exhibition showing the history of the Hungarian Financial Guard opened.

 
Source: kozterkep.hu

After the integration of VP and APEH (“Adó- és Pénzügyi Ellenőrzési Hivatal”: Tax and Financial Control Administration – ed.) in 2011, the Museum of Financial Guard and Taxation History is holding its permanent and periodical exhibitions, events and some departments of the National Tax- and Custom Office operate in the mansion.

Source: budapest100.hu

Source: budapest100.hu