The male sheepskin sleeveless coat (vest) having inventory number A 3665 is exhibited in the main exhibition of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography within the costume exhibition group from Beiuş area (Bihor region, Romania). The piece registered under the local name “cojoc cu sirinca” was acquired in 1962.
It is a medium length front-open vest having two small lateral clefts at the bottom edge. Cut of three main pieces of sheep fur with white background, it has secondary elements added and overlapped, made of the same material and of colourful “irha” (patterns of thin and tanned leather), the piece being decorated at the neck and partly at lapels with black lamb’s fur.
The technique specific to applying of woollen buttons (“ciupi”) in red and black placed compactly beside lapel in groups of rectangular shape predominates, and the rest are displayed distantly. It is used also the technique of full embroidery on drawing, the technique of applying red, white and green “irha”, the technique of “branel” type made with green “irha” and red wool.
The piece background remains white on chest and on lateral sides, predominating “ciupii” – characteristic buttons. Equally characteristic is the winding motif at the base of breastbone. At back, on white background, it appears the unique decorative rod motif with a lobed base specific to the centre. The dominance of the decoration is given by the buttons, floral elements accompanying the various groups of them. A current motif present in the interwar and post-war pieces appears at the base of lapels and consists of a group of four elongated rosettes written in one square.
According to the specialised bibliography (Dunăre, 1957; Secoșan-Petrescu, 1984), the sheepskin sleeveless coat is in the “binsanesc” type (name referring to the place of making the pieces, called Beius, locally called Bins). The researches made in 1911 by the Hungarian ethnographer István Györffy (Györffy, 1912) shows the age of the cut, of the decoration composition and of the vest motifs.