roman battleship with figurehead bone, ram horn 1904
Horváth collection Sopron
in those days, the motherland used to be far from all hubs of railways and preserved such ancient characteristics in complete isolation that could not really be found elsewhere. I still saw the shepherds with their braided hair who would let the herd graze even at night, mostly without permission. As a child, I would spend entire days with them, marvelling what a simple jack-knife is capable of creating in their hands. I learned to carve from them and learned about the kinds of woods. At the age of ten, I was already familiar with the tricks of making lead inlays and decorating the carved shape with wax, the so-called Spanish-waxing. I would burr and crave for days on end for my own pleasure
József Horváth 1959