Zsolnay: Hungary

Pecs, Hungary

Miklos Zsolnay established the first factory in 1853 in Pecs, Hungary for his son Ignac making architecural terracotta, garden decorations, crockery and water pipes using local clay. Their logo was based on the five towers after which the city Pecs was named in the Middle Ages. In 1881 Zsolnay receives a contract from the Hungarian postal service to produce porcelain insulators for telegraph equipment and by 1882 four kilns are in operation for insulators. In 1895 production of porcelain insulators gains an independent section of the factory. Around 1902 Zsolnay acquires shares in Drasche Co., another porcelain maker in Hungary. By 1914 Zsolnay was the largest company in Austro-Hungary. After WWII the company was Nationalized and renamed Pecsi Porcelangyar (Pecs Porcelain Factory) making common tableware. Iin 1982 with the resumption of a market economy, the company regained its operational independence, was reorganized, and the Zsolnay name returned. In 1991, the Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacture became a stock company, and five years later it was bought by a private equity enterprise which it remains today. I see no evidence that insulators were manufactured after WWII.

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