The continued research of the past year has yielded new results and it has now been possible to locate the exact places where the two main playing-card workshops of Mátyás Unger the Elder and Younger were located in Győr: one in Apáca utca, formerly #323, now #27, next to the German Hospital and Church. Altogether, though, the old house no longer exists as it was torn down with its two neighbouring houses to the left and right when the German Hospital built a new building adjacent to its original edifice in the latter half of the 19th century. It is now an old folks’ home, according to Dr. Gyula Vadász. This house belonged to the Ungers from the 1810s to the early 1840s, when they had to have it auctioned off and moved to Bástya utca #260, now Duna kapu tér #7. This brown house was newly erected in 1850, and the Ungers therefore took residence in the Apatur ház on Széchenyi tér at around this time, but kept their playing-card workshop there until c 1857, when they ceased their playing-card production in Győr.
Standard 56-card deck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Despite the fact that the original house in Apáca utca is obsolete now, we have been able to make considerable progress with the reconstruction, ie outside-in analysis of the artisanal playing-card production in 19th century in Győr. To be continued… and photographs will also be added to this post soon.
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