Károly Doncsecz

Károly Doncsecz
Károly Doncsecz in 1987
Born	c. May 30, 1918 Orfalu, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	November 12, 2002(2002-11-12) (aged 84) Körmend, Hungary
Nationality	Hungarian Slovenian
Known for	Ceramics
Awards	Master of Folk Art Award, 1984, Ágoston Pável Memorial plaquette, Congress VIII. of HNF Award, 1985, Order Vitéz 2001

Károly Doncsecz (Slovene: Karel Dončec) was a Slovene potter in Hungary and in 1984 he received the award "Master of folk art" for his work. Doncsecz was born in Orfalu, (Vas County).

He graduated from the apprenticeship in Magyarszombatfa and Zalaegerszeg, Sümeg (Zala County), after Szentgotthárd.

From 1940 on Doncsecz lived and worked in Kétvölgy, (Vas County). Since the 1970s, he was the only Slovene potter in Hungary. His potter works were presented in numerous exhibits all over Hungary and Slovenia. When he was still alive, travel groups from the motherland Slovenia often visited him in his kétvölgyian workshop, and Doncsecz did not only tell about his craft, but also about biographies of many Slovenes from the Rába region in his mother tongue.

Károly Doncsecz was born in Orfalu. His parents were well off farmers of Slovenian origin. Both his father, Károly Dancsecz (1894–1927) and his mother, Anna Talabér (1900–1920) were born in Orfalu. He had a brother, István, who emigrated to and settled down in Canada in the 1960s (Steve Doncsecz died in 2008).

The brothers lost their parents very early. Their mother died while giving birth. Their father died seven years later of pulmonary disease. The brothers were raised by their grandfather, István Dancsecz (1871–1932) for a while.

When he was young, Károly worked for a turner in Orfalu. Originally he wanted to be a tailor but he got familiar with pottery in Apátistvánfalva at a potter called Károly Kürnyek who suggested to choose this trade. He went to Magyarszombatfa at the age of 15 in 1933. He was an apprentice of János Zsohár for 3 years and he studied the bases of the trade here. Later, most of his pieces of works showed a lot a similarity with the Magyarszombatfa style of pottery. The most difficult one was the Mowerjug (bugyogakorsó). From 1937 to 1938 he worked for Lajos Németh in Zalaegerszeg, then he went to István Adorján, a potter who lived Sümeg. He is thought to learn the patterns of the Great Plain here, and he was also influenced by Balázs Badár (1854–1939), a famous potter from Mezőtúr. During the years he collected ceramics from Vendvidék, Őrség, Transdanubia (Dunántúl) and the Great Plain, and he used them as samples. Later he displayed them on a shelf in his store with his first ceramics together.