79 - [JOURNEYMANSHIP - HUNGARY, AUSTRIA]. An official, stamped, bilingual journeyman’s booklet belonging to a Hungarian bootmaker. 1846–1853.

[JOURNEYMANSHIP - HUNGARY, AUSTRIA]. An official, stamped, bilingual journeyman’s booklet belonging to a Hungarian bootmaker. 1846–1853. An exceptional official journeyman’s booklet issued to a Hungarian bootmaker, containing 13 records of residence and administrative documents accompanied by 12 perfectly preserved red wax seals. Pesth (Budapest), printed by Trattner-Károlyi (July 16, 1816), issued in 1846 and updated through 1852. Small 8vo booklet in fawn half-basane. 32 pp. (complete). Woodcut vignette featuring the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Hungary; double title printed in Hungarian and German; double-page spread printed with a “physical description” completed for the holder in the Hungarian section; 3 printed pages of bilingual regulations, and 24 pages of visa entries, including 11 pages entirely handwritten detailing the itinerary. This booklet belonged to a 17-year-old Hungarian craftsman, Mihály Hamvai Kovács, who was unmarried and of the Reformed (Calvinist) faith. A native of the small town of Makó in Csanád County, he is registered as a master bootmaker (Csizmadia). His physical description, recorded to prevent fraud during his travels, describes him as a young man of average height with a round face and fair complexion, with chestnut-colored hair and no beard—characteristics officially authenticated at the bottom of the page by his handwritten signature. His journeyman travels—a veritable tour of Hungary—began after he completed his apprenticeship in Makó on December 28, 1846. Between 1847 and 1852, the shoemaker took on a series of several-month-long apprenticeships with master craftsmen in Hódmezővásárhely, Makó, Hatzfeld (Jimbolia), Szarvas, and Orosháza, traveling in the midst of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and overcoming a 16-month hiatus due to illness (betegeskedése végett). Armed with an official two-year travel permit for the Austrian Empire issued by Csanád County, he made a final 49-week stop in Nagy-Szent-Miklós (Sânnicolau Mare) before his travel journal was definitively closed in February 1853. The red wax seals are magnificent. Particularly noteworthy are those from Makó on pages 9 and 13, the seal adorned with a boot from the Hatzfeld craftsmen’s guild on page 15, and the prestigious large Austrian imperial seal featuring the double-headed eagle on page 26. The volume is closed at the lower inside cover by two endorsements dated February 15, 1853. These two documents are sealed by two magnificent red wax seals holding the original two-colored security cords that run through the volume: on the left, the official Great Seal of the Austrian Empire featuring the double-headed eagle on its yellow-and-black twisted cord; on the right, that of the guild on its green and white cord, in the national colors of Hungary. They are accompanied by two official 3-Kreuzer dry tax stamps. Rare, in remarkable condition.