100 years – 100 artefacts

The “horned” combing of the women from Hațeg Country was an element of social differentiation in women’s traditional costume, giving it a special note. The young married woman in the image made by Romulus Vuia, in 1912, in Răchitova village, Hunedoara county, seen from the profile, has her hair combed with a middle path. On each side of the head, the hair is twisted into 6 thin strands (“twists”), which are left down towards the temples, passed under the ears, and then raised to the top of the head where they are tied in a small bun (“ciși”). The bun is then fixed with a support (“conci”) made of wood or wire, having an elongated shape with two horns at the ends. “Ceapsa” (a kind of bonnet) is attached to “conci”, made of home-woven cloth, having a trapezoidal shape and being decorated at the base with a compact register of stitches with geometric motifs. In her ears the young woman wears earrings, and around her neck she has two necklaces (“zgărdane”), made of small beads of different colors and a long string of larger beads. The shirt (“inia”) worn by the woman has wide sleeves starting from the collar, decorated with motifs placed horizontally in the upper part of the sleeve, forming a narrow band (“pui păstă umere”). The shirt is enriched around the neck with an urban-influenced ruffle. Over the shirt the woman wears a stuffed breastplate, made of sheep fur, finished under the arm, hemmed on the edges, having multicolored floral motifs embroidered on the chest, arranged centrally. The breastplate has a dark silk crochet decoration applied around the mouth, in front. The cliché, registered with title “Peasant woman”, with inventory no. 82, is made in the gelatin-silver bromide technique on glass support, with dimensions of 9 cm x 12 cm.