100 years – 100 artefacts
In the villages of Mountain Banat, the distillation of alcoholic beverages (locally known as “roasted brandy”/“răchie profriptă) was a community event, where the villagers pleasantly combined work with cheerfulness, in an atmosphere of good mood. In the village communities, obtaining these drinks was done according to a mutually agreed schedule, each family knowing when to bring their draff (“borhot”), wood and helpers to the boiler. This atmosphere was captured by Romulus Vuia, in 1923, in the town of Cornereva, Caraș-Severin county. In the foreground, there is the hearth built of stone, with clay, where the cauldron was placed for the draff to boil. In front of the hearth, sitting on a wooden stool, there is a man who constantly stirs in the cauldron so that the draff doesn’t catch and the brandy doesn’t “smoke”. On the right, at the bottom of the hearth, there is a faucet for draining the draff. A copper bell is placed over the boiler where the alcohol vapors collect, from where they reach a “cooler” (a copper spiral) through a copper pipe, immersed into the wooden barrel filled with cold water. The cold water supply was carried out with the help of a wooden trough. In the lower part of the barrel, there is placed a wooden recipient in which the brandy was collected, and in the upper part can be seen the pipe through which the water was removed. Near the brandy distillation equipment, the cut and dried wood is placed, ready to maintain the fire under the cauldron; three conical wooden recipients filled with the draff ready to be boiled, a wooden cask in which the obtained brandy was stored, and on the fence, behind the four standing men, is a large cone. Around the cauldron stands a large group of people (children, women and men) dressed up in work clothes. Men wear felt hats with broad, straight brims, or of the old type, with high brim and turned up all round; long cloth shirts with a collar and a mouth in the middle, wide sleeves finished with cuffs (“pumnași”); plain breastplates, stuffed or black corsages, with lapels, buttons and pockets; waist belt; loose drawers or trousers tucked into colorful socks, knee-high, or stockings, shoed with sandals with large tips, and tied with ankle straps.
Women wear white or colored headscarves tied under the chin, locally bought; shirts with wide sleeves, plain or with embroidery along the sleeves; simple stuffed breastplates or knitted vests; laps with embroidery at the bottom; apron made of commercially procured material, or dark or light rectangular skirt (“catrințe”); socks and sandals with large tips, turned up, tied with ankle straps.
Girls and boys are dressed up just like adults. One of the women is caught spinning.
The cliche, registered by title “Cauldron for boiling brandy”, with inventory no. 36, is made in the silver gelatin-bromide technique on glass support, with dimensions of 9 cm x 12 cm.
Photo: MET archive
