Postal Museum

Editorial

We start a new column today on the Hungary Starts Here blog! Let me indroduce you Natasha from Kharkov (Ukraine). A smart, young corporate lawyer who is in love with Budapest and who will share with you her own stories of this city in Russian and English language!

Enjoy her articles and photos of Natasha!

Zsolt


Postal museum (Russian version of this article)

So with Budapest, it is the same old story. Hundreds of tourists (and local residents too :) are carried by Andrassy avenue, not even suspecting how many interesting stories are hidden in each of these buildings.

For example, the building of the Postal Museum. It would be just desirable to stamp a leg: don't dare to pass by!!! :) The word "museum" casts a gloom and a door with the initials "A&S" does not promise any miracles. But try to simply believe :), and to press the button of a doorbell "Postamuzeum" (otherwise, we are not able to get in since it has the coded-lock! That's because there is in fact an inhabited apartments and offices which are still in placed.

The contrast is stupefying. Outside is the human "ant hill", and some passers-by look with a wide-eyed astonishment: what did she find special in this ordinary door, why is she photographing it? And inside is a magnificent Tsar's Chamber. An internal court yard with carved balconies and stained-glass windows. The graceful lamps. The painted arches. A stucco moulding, gold and marble. Stained-glass windows of the staircases.

It really caught me unexpectedly.

This building is noteworthy in itself. Onceit was a usual apartment house.

It was constructed in 1886 by architect Gyõzõ Czigler for a rich manufacturer Andreas Saxlehner. His initials "A&S" are everywhere in the building, in each of its apartment. From the handle of an entrance door to the gold stucco moulding of a ceiling.

I read in a book by Karoly Lotz and learned that Andreas Saxlehner constructed this building in honour of his wife, the opera singer whom he idolized. Therefore, all the bas-reliefs and frescoes of staircases are full of opera passion and allegories :)

The manufacturer and his wife were dwelt in a 7-roomed apartment on the second floor of the building, and the rest of the apartments are rented out. In their apartment, there is also a Postal Museum now .

The apartment deserves a separate attention: the richest furnishing is a carved wood, the original "master's" interior are preserved here (only a bath have been sent to another museum in the beginning 1980).

The custodians of the museum can show the visitors most modern for that time stuffing of an apartment (for example, pneumomail). Besides, from the windows of the Postal Museum opens the beautiful view on the St. Istvan's Basilica at such an amazing yet unexpected angle .

By the way, Andreas Saxlehner itself was the signatory for Hungary in some ways. With his name even connected to one famous judicial case on copyrights. Of which, in 1900 was considered in southern district court of New York.

("EMILIE SAXLEHNER, Petitioner, v. EISNER & MENDELSON COMPANY. Argued March 22, 23, 1900. Decided October 15, 1900." - the full version is accessible on http://supreme.justia.com/us/179/19/case.html )

Claimed by his widow, Andreas Saxlehner was the proprietor of a certain well within the city limits of Buda-Pesth until May 24, 1889. In 1863, he began to sell the waters of the same, in the market under the name or trademark of 'Hunyadi Janos.

As his business demands increase, he acquired additional territory by opening new wells which adopted a novel style of bottles and a peculiar label. Soon this water became known in all the markets of the world under the name of 'Hunyadi Janos'. In England and the United States, it was under the name of 'Hunyadi' alone.

In March 1876, Saxlehner entered into a contract with the Apollinaris Company of London, which was given the exclusive right to sell this water in Great Britain and the United States. This exclusive right was not terminated until March 1896. This company used a label of similar design, but of different color, and that large quantities of this water were exported by Saxlehner through it and sold in the United States under the name of Hunyadi water.

Saxlehner died May 24, 1889, and plaintiff succeeded him in the business. Prior to his death Saxlehner obtained the registration in the Patent Office of the name 'Hunyadi' as his trademark.

And in 1900, his widow Emili has declared the claim in the circuit court for the southern district of New York against the Eisner & Mendelson Company, importers and wholesale dealers. Emili approved, that the defendant, knowing of these facts, had unlawfully imported and sold bitter water not coming from plaintiff's wells, in bottles of identical shape and size as those used by plaintiff, and with labels in 'close and fraudulent simulation of your orator's trademark,' but under the name of 'Hunyadi Laszlo' or 'Hunyadi Matyas,'-all in defiance of plaintiff's right, and with the design of imposing the waters upon the public as those of the plaintiff.

Emily as a heir-at-law of trade mark Saxlehner has demanded to enjoin the defendant from selling any water under a name in which the word 'Hunyadi' occurs, or making use in the sale of bitter waters of labels, in form, color, design, and general appearance, imitating the labels used by plaintiff in the sale of Hunyadi Janos water.

Such a case..:) Here is how were famous the Hungarian mineral waters in the beginning of 20th century ....

Special thanks to Alla!

For more photos and info about the Postal Museum click here.

(the historical datas of the museum are from the book of András Török)