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Traditional Textile Fabrics

The great number of the textile fabrics makes a difference between the Transylvanian Romanian peasant interior and the West-European peasant one. Made within the household and exhibited especially in the bed corner, but also on the wall around the pottery or the icons, the textile fabrics were the proud of each housewife and defined - by quantity, quality and aesthetic value - the social-economic family status.

In the pre-mountain areas where many sheep were bred, the wool fabrics predominated used for bed covering, wall covering, and bench covering or exhibited on a special wooden support above the bed.

In the hill and plain areas, predominantly agricultural, the linen fabrics predominated, exhibited on the support above the bed, on the bed or on the table.

The linen towels were common in both areas, their function being both decorative and apotropaic. In addition, the linen ornamented pillows were common, being arranged on the bed or on the wooden support.

The first exhibition unit in the textile room exhibits a weaving loom typical to Transylvania, dating at the end of the 19th century. There are exhibited pieces of panura (thick woollen fabric) near to a dowry chest dating in the first half of the 19th century, made of beech wood by Romanian craftsmen in Plopis centre using an ancient technique. The chest of this kind had an important role in the peasant dwelling, being the only furniture item that could protect the textile fabrics and the holiday cloths against the smoke from the fireplace.

The second exhibition unit group the woollen Romanian fabrics from Maramures, Nasaud, Bargau, Bran and a Hungarian one from Szekler region, all of them aligned from left to right, depending to the stages of evolution of the decoration (between 1850-1950), beginning with the old items, only with simple geometrical motifs: large lines, to the ones partly decorated with these motifs, partly having registers with narrow motifs, continuing to the fabrics with large registers and ending with the newer items compact ornamented without registers. In the same time, this unit emphasizes the differences of chromatic range between the woollen fabrics dyed with vegetal colours (1, 19th century) and the woollen fabrics dyed with industrial colours (2, after 1900). All the exhibited items in this unit were decorated using the technique ales printre fire (chosen between threads).

The exhibition unit III contains woollen fabrics from Hunedoara, Maramures, Banat, decorated in the technique of chilim (motifs limited by cuts), fabrics with motifs alese peste fire (chosen over the threads) from Bran and Margau, and two woollen blankets processed at the felting mill, one woven in the old technique with white and black strips (19th century, Nasaud), the other in the technique ales printre fire (chosen between threads) with wool dyed industrially dating at the half o the 20th century (Maramures). It is to be noticed the general presence of the geometric motifs in the case of the Romanian fabrics and the transition from the old chromatic range based on brown, pale red, dark blue, white, black and pale yellow to a newer chromatic range that includes vivid colours of industrial provenience, with contrast colours: green and vivid red, orange and violet, pink.

The exhibition unit IV presents a Saxon bed covering from Bistrita region, woven of linen, aleasa peste fire (chosen between threads) and dated in the inter-war period. The exhibited pillows, having a characteristic embroidered decoration including plant, floral and animal motifs, date at the end of the 19th century. The presence on the fabrics of the inscriptions (sacred or naming the owner) and of the dates is specific to the Transylvanian Saxon community.

The exhibition units V and VI were organised in the system of the suspended crossbeams under the ceiling above the bed, system generalised at Romanians, present regionally at Hungarians and sporadically used by the Saxon population. The exhibition unit V contains Romanian towels (end of 19th century-beginning of 20th century) from Zarand, Banat, Hunedoara, Alba, Nasaud, and Transylvanian Plain regions, being exhibited from the left to the right on three registers. The upper register illustrates the evolution of the decoration, from the simple lines to the geometric ornamentation and then to bird motifs shown in the motifs albums. The second register illustrates the evolution of the decoration techniques from the ales printre fire to chilim, to nevedit and ales peste fire. Under the two rows of fabrics there are fixed towels with special shape, very long, from the south of Transylvania, and on a wooden crossbeam, there were arranged woven pillows decorated with different techniques. The large proportions of the white spaces, the preponderance of the combinations of red, black, white and of the geometric motifs characterize the old Romanian linen fabrics.

The exhibition unit VI suggests the structure of a parade bed and a characteristic staff (ruda) to the Hungarian region Calata, with textile fabrics dated in the second half of the 19th century: line towels, embroidered in crosses and on drawing, pillows with compact floral motif and some bed covers decorated with the same two techniques, or with cuts and with the technique cu fire trase. The bench dated 1902, executed in the furniture Hungarian centre Huedin, was often put near to the high bed in the traditional rooms.

The exhibition unit VII is organized as a Romanian ruda for textile fabrics (middle of the 19th century and middle of the 20th century) typical to Maramures, which includes linen items (line towels, pillows) and wool items (wall carpets, bed covers) that illustrate the evolution of the weaving and ornamentation techniques.

Under the towels, there are exhibited the wall carpets belonging to different centuries (the vivid coloured one is inter-wars, the other one was made at the end of the 19th century), situation that is repeated in the case of the two hairy woollen blankets.

The exhibition unit VIII presents textiles dated in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, embroidered in three basic techniques with zone alternatives. The embroidery technique in crosses is illustrated by two Saxon objects, made in simple cross (1) and double cross (2) and by two Hungarian objects made in double cross technique with different outline (3, Transylvanian Plain) and in the triple cross technique (4, Trascau). The embroidery technique with cuts is represented by three Hungarian objects, all of them from the Transylvanian Plain (5, 6, and 7). The embroidery executed on drawing gave a great freedom in using different embroidery techniques that outline the zone variants. This type of embroidery is represented by five Hungurian items from the Transylvanian Plain (8), Sic (9), Calata (10), Odorhei (11-12) and a Saxon item from Bistrita region (13). Made on homemade linen with cotton or woollen hair, the embroideries are either monochrome (red or blue) or made in two colours.