Infant Standing Stool from Kalotaszeg

Author: Tamás Molnár
Photoes: Judit Kardos

Just as there is adult furniture—different sets for different rooms of the house—so is there children’s furniture:  not doll furniture (miniature versions of adult furnishings), but the sorts of things adults use in child care, such as the cradle, playpen, and—seen here—the standing stool. 

A standing stool is a piece of furniture used when an infant has grown strong enough to remain vertical, one that helps not only the child, who uses it to practice standing, but also the mother, who in the meantime can work without being disturbed.  The use of a standing stool does, of course, require adult attention.  A child cannot get out of one without help, and if tired or forgotten, may suffer harm from being left there. 

Traditionally, there have been several types of standing stools.  The most common had a rectangular seat with four pegged legs.  Less common types featured a supporting framework in place of legs, or had round or oval seats.  What all forms shared was the round hole in the middle into which the child was placed.  Sometimes, a depression was carved in front of the hole to serve as a food tray.  Some stools with frames even had a wooden floor to insulate the child’s feet from the cold ground, or were equipped with wheels so that it was easier to move. However, it’s important to note that even this variant should not be confused with a ’walker,’ which allows the child to move around independently.. 

In Hungarian the word for standing stool is állóka, though there are other terms:  álló, állópad, gyermekálló, and gyermekállató.  Such stools had other uses besides as children’s furniture.  Across Hungary, they were placed in the rooms of the bedridden, for example, to prevent them having to relieve themselves outside. 

There has long been an association in Hungarian between the standing stool and the word ‘kati,’ which doubles as the nickname for Katalin (Catherine), because of the old saying:  ‘Áll, mint Katiban a gyerek’ [‘S/he stands, like a child in (a) kati’].  A study by Géza Balázs in the Hungarian linguistic periodical Magyar Nyelvőr, however, has demonstrated that the saying actually has nothing to do with the standing stool, nor does the word ‘kati’ actually refer to one in any part of the country. 

The stool seen here is a rare piece not only for its structure, but also because it is the only one in the museum that has been decoratively painted.  It is presumed to have been made in Magyarvalkó, in the region of Kalotaszeg, during the second half of the 19th century, and unlike most such stools, is the work of a professional joiner.  The four legs are connected by side slats with both upper and lower edges decoratively carved.  A seat has been affixed to the top of these and boards placed between the side slats to form flooring.  The piece is painted with a base coat of yellow-white, with its seat and side surfaces covered in designs of vines, flowers, leaves, birds, and star rosettes in red, green, and blue.  Visible on the four corners of the seat display is the shaded tulip motif that typifies the painted furniture of Kalotaszeg.  The legs and seat edges are additionally decorated with a chiselled design. 

This special article of furniture has been lying in storage for more than half a century and in fact, was officially inventoried only in 1959.  The delay seems particularly odd when one considers that it had already featured in a key work of professional literature:  Zsigmond Bátky’s 1906 treatise based on the museum’s own collection—the source for what is known of its origins.  Since the stool was collected for the museum early in its history, before the advent of modern documentation standards, no information on its former use or owners was recorded.