Baroque flower etching

The latest item listed on Etsy by the Transylvanian trove is a lovely small print after an original eighteenth-century plate. The central element is a heart-shaped composition of finely engraved flowers, an appealing Baroque decoration.

1772 engraving plate hand pulled in 2014

Under the central floral composition one can see on the left a small city vedutta  and the engraver's name and year: Josephus Vasarhelly (in Latinized Hungarian meaning Joseph from Vasarhellyi=Targu Mures) 1772. According to the artist's name, the city of fortification depicted is Targu Mures, in Transylvania.

Etching, numbered in pencil 9/I. This means it is one of the first prints in the series, with good-quality details.
Dimensions: 7.7 x 8.5 cm (3 x 3.3 inches), not framed, in good condition, reprint made in 2014 by the National History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca, Romania after one of the eighteenth century printing plates in its collection. According to the name, the author was a Hungarian master from Transylvania. The 2014 print, the ninth in the series, is hand-pulled in sanguin typographic ink on printmaking paper with the dry stamp of the museum. 

detail with the city vedutta and the marking "sc: Josephus Vasarhellyi" (made by Joseph of Targu Mures)

Nineteenth-century guild certificate from Cluj

The National History Museum of Transylvania preserves in its collection a series of engraving plates for guild certificates. The nineteenth century plates were used to print "diplomas", official forms granted apprentices after presenting the masterpieces to the guild commission and becoming masters themselves. This particular print, recently pulled after the original plate, was employed by the carpenters' guild in Cluj, written in German and depicting a vedutta of the city of Klausenburg/Kolozsvar/Cluj. The main monuments are numbered and explained in the caption and the frame decorated with festoons is surmounted by the coat of arms of Cluj - a city gate with three towers.
The post card depicting this diploma can be acquired at the History of Pharmacy Collection.

An earlier and more famous view of the same city, labeled "Claudiopolis Coloswar vulgo Klausenburg, Transilvaniae civitas primara", has been created by Georg Houfnagel in 1617.