Renáta Tyršová

“ Outside of the museums there is only one district in western Bohemia where it is possible by personal experience to learn how a special mode of life and the nature of the soil have together evolved the fashion of dress peculiar to this part of the country. During a holiday one can meet near Domažlice, in a mountainous and not very fertile country, lean old men wearing broad-brimmed black hats and longtailed white coats of homemade cloth. ”

“ The upper classes of the nation are once more in sympathy with the people and aid powerfully in raising the intellectual standard of the country and in recruiting from the masses the best artists and men of letters. They now regard the traditional art of the peasants with pride as their own inheritance, and see in it as well many links that bind together the various branches of the great Slavonic race. ”

“ These home industries soon got beyond the peddlar stage of its existence; in some districts they are now organized by diverse societies who bringing their trained experience and capital into the business have succeeded in largely increasing the trade. The art of lace making is the special object of certain industrial schools and the efforts of the teachers have been rewarded by a large measure of success.
In Bohemia and Moravia, earlier perhaps than in any other part of Central Europe, much attention has been bestowed on the apparently vanishing innate inventive powers of the country people. ”

“ The Ethnographic and Historic Museums in Prague and in almost all the larger towns in Bohemia possess great collections of embroideries, suits of national dresses from various parts of Bohemia and Moravia, home pottery, furniture and other implements, painted Easter eggs, toys, manuscript prayer books adorned with miniatures and drawings, etc. Folklore, national art and culture are the objects of intense study of a considerable number of literary men who publish special journals and beautifully illustrated books. ”

“ They exhibit in a striking manner the national characteristics in art and industry.
The loss of Bohemia’s independence and the determination of the government to make Germans of the people were the causes that alienated the great mass of the population from the cultured classes. These latter were educated in German schools and forgot their nationality, as well as lost their individuality. But the country people continued to live their own old national life. Even during the centuries of serfdom the peasants of Bohemia were owners of the soil they tilled. ”

“ The aprons in some districts are blue with a garland of many colored blossoms as a border. In other parts they wear black with blue embroidery or in some cases with an insertion of open work and a colored ornament. Even the men, especially the youthful swains, indulge in many bright ornaments on their dress, the breast of his shirt, waistcoat and breeches, and sometimes even the mantle thrown in graceful folds round the shoulder is ornamented with a fine display of lacing and embroidery. ”

“ The nearer we approach to Prague and to the north and northwest frontier, the signs of the present day increase, busy factories meet the eye, and just as the evidence of modern commercial life grows stronger, so traces of old customs and fashions become few, until in the busy towns it is to the museum we must go to learn the lessons of the past. ”

“ When the country people ceased to wear their national dress, some of the workers who formerly had supplied only the requirements of their neighbors began to work for a larger circle of customers. The people’s art developed into an important home industry. ”

“ More than fifty years ago the peasants of Bohemia began to discard their pretty showy costumes, and only in the southern parts, far from the industrial centers and the high roads of commerce, have the forms of ancient life been preserved. ”

“ The innate liking for decorative display concentrates its aims principally on the head-gear; hence the endless variety of caps and coifs, as well as of scarves and kerchiefs. The chemises of the women have either broad collars with rich embroidery, or a broad ornament in the middle of the sleeves. ”

“ But in former times the rich garments of the portly women from the extensive farms harmonized well with the signs of the land’s fertility and the prosperity of the country generally. The people here are not so tall as their neighbors from Domažlice, but rather stout and not so sunburnt. ”

“ The Bohemian peasantry, whose chief occupation until the middle of the nineteenth century was agriculture, created for themselves on the basis of old traditions an original style of arranging their homes and their costumes, with their own poetry, music and dances, customs and ceremonies. ”

“ We are convinced of their worth, and all who are interested ought to study technical peculiarities, the designs and style of ornamentation, and endeavor to extract from the consideration of ancient art an inspiration for new artistic creations. ”

“ They possessed so much innate energy and creative powers as to make for themselves sufficiently cultured and artistic surroundings and thus raised themselves above the dreary monotony of daily drudgery and preserved their national character. ”