MARKET

The museum's souvenir shop is arranged in the form of a Roman market (in Latin mercatus). At the museum headquarters (ground floor) we sell a series of objects with actual replicas or inspired by cultural heritage assets, from the museum's collection, in collaboration with local artists and producers. Mercatus is always changing, depending on the new exhibitions that appear. Basically, it also becomes a small museum of the creations of local artists/artisans, who have designed products inspired by the museum's active exhibitions.

For example, the details on the mummy and its sarcophagus, from the exhibition "Gods and Dead from Ancient Egypt", were used as a source of inspiration for the creation of jewelry or decorative objects.

Blue Petal created wonderful jewelry and porcelain objects, hand painted with mummy or sarcophagus motifs, especially the mummy/sarcophagus bust necklaces, which were meant to indicate a certain social status of the deceased.

Acid Cat has created a special collection of jewelry, unique pieces, inspired by Egyptian jewelry and containing natural stones, pearls or Murano glass.

Lampadaria Design has come up with a collection of cushions, laptop, iPad, book and wine bottle covers, all of which reproduce details from the mummy/sarcophagus, printed directly into textiles.

Natura Paper has created a series of boxes for tea or for various objects, with different details from the mummy.

All products are of high quality and can be successfully integrated either in a cool outfit or in the interiors of your homes, without having the often cheap look of a souvenir. This is what we aim for, that is, to create beautiful memories for you through the experience of visiting and to offer you, as a testimony of this experience, objects that you will love to wear or use in your everyday life, not to burden that you just have to wipe the dust off them.

In addition, the use of local artists/artisans is still a guarantee of the uniqueness and quality of the products, compared to mass production. And the collaborations in this sense will develop by including the products of already established designers, who will create products especially for MNIT. And we are very proud to support local art in this way too. 🙂

We are waiting for you!

Jewelry

The jewelry is made with replicas of pieces from the museum collection (copying by molding and casting), inspired by them or by period representations. We used the following heritage objects considered representative:

Custom items

Fridge magnets with old Cluj

The magnets reproduce some of the photographs taken by Ferenc Veress in Cluj in the second half of the 1832th century. Glass negatives to keep in museum collection. Ferenc Veress was born in Cluj in 1889. As a teenager he studied goldsmithing at Aiud where he came into contact with Miklós Zeyk, the first Transylvanian familiar with the photographic processes of Daguerre and Talbot. Veress's activity was supported by one of the most important people of Transylvanian culture, Count Imre Mikó, the founder of the Transylvanian Museum Society. The photographer from Cluj participated with his first experiments in color photography at the World Exhibition in Paris in XNUMX.

• 1. Central Square (Unirii), on the left a demolished building, in the background, on the corner, the Hintz House.
• 2. The gate cannon on Ungurilor street (currently 21 December 1989)
• 3. Matia Corvin House (1887)
• 4. St. Michael's Church (with the Gothic portal moved in 1889 to St. Peter's Bis., Bd. 21 Decembrie 1989)
• 5. The Carolina Obelisk, erected in 1831 to commemorate the visit to Cluj of Empress Carolina Augusta together with Emperor Francis I, originally located on the south side of the Central Square (Union Square).
• 6. Bastionul Croitorilor, part of the second medieval precinct of the city. Built in the XNUMXth century, rebuilt in the XNUMXth century.
• 7. Market day in the Central Square (Unirii), in the background the Pannonia Hotel (the current Melody Hotel).
• 8. Strada Podului/Gheorghe Doja (currently Ferdinand) seen from Unirii Square
• 9. Central Square (Unirii), in the background the Pannonia Hotel (current Melody Hotel) and the Banffy Palace
• 10. Central Square (Unirii), the currently demolished buildings around St. Michael's Church.

Ceramic mug, 300 ml, with the reproduction of the tablets from Tărtăria

The clay tablets from Tărtăria were discovered by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961. Two of them are covered with signs that are supposed to be part of the so-called "Danube Script", a writing system older than the Sumerian one. The third tablet is covered with icons. The pieces were dated around 5000 BC.

Ceramic mug, 200 ml, with reproductions of Saxon pattals

These 15th century paftals, made of gilded silver, glass and precious stones, were massive jewels (up to XNUMX cm in diameter), part of the traditional Saxon female costume, worn on the chest. These pieces from the museum collection were made in a workshop in Brașov.

Set of stickers

Sheet of different stickers for notebooks, phone, laptop, satchel, etc. Decorative motifs on vintage engravings with views and coats of arms of Cluj and Transylvania, coins, Dacian pieces, Roman pieces identical to those on the cup holders.

The cotton bag

Bag with handles, decorated with a view of Cluj, detail from an engraving plate for printing craftsman diplomas.

Pix

Recyclable cardboard pen.

Umbrella

Polyester umbrella with wooden ends, decorated with the stylized logo of the National History Museum of Transylvania.

T-shirt

black cotton bib, unisex, 18th century floral engraving decoration or the stylized logo of the National History Museum of Transylvania.

A5 notebook

Notebook with cork covers, floral decoration from the same engraving, after a plate from the museum collection. Below the detailed floral decoration is a small view (probably of the Târgu Mureș fortress), the author's name (Josephus Vasarhelly) and the year (1772).

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Engravings on handmade paper or special graphic paper, with craftsman's diplomas with the view of Cluj and various representations on graphic plates from the collection, maps and portraits (Matia Corvin).

Colored engraving of Cluj, made in 1617. It is part of a larger work entitled Civitates Orbis Terrarum, published in several editions in the 546th century, which contained 1617 views of cities around the world. The cartouche with Latin text on the lower left identifies the one to whom the work was dedicated (Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria), the artists (painter Egidius van der Rye and engraver Georg Hoefnagel) and the year (XNUMX). The view of Cluj shows the fortified city in its heyday, when it was called the most important city of the Principality of Transylvania (Transilvaniae civitas primariae). Inside the walls of the enclosure you can identify the most important buildings - the Gothic church of Saint Michael, the Dominican monastery (today in Piata Muzeului), the Franciscan monastery (today on Mihail Kogălniceanu str.) - but outside the suburbs are also represented, as well as three ladies in period costumes.

Handmade paper objects

• TENDER made of hand-made paper, hand-bound, cover decorated with the coat of arms of Cluj or Transylvania.
• Set of bookmarks with Renaissance decorative motifs (mascheroni) and the coat of arms of Cluj.
• Set of cup holders from handmade paper, with coats of arms of the city and county of Cluj, Transylvania and the main cities.

Scarves

Hand-painted scarves with motifs inspired by pieces from the museum's collection (55th-century enamel buckle, painted Dacian pottery, 55th-century writing cabinet, governor Gheorghe Bánffy's dolman, Bronze Age ax with disc and thorn, decorative vessel that belonged to Iuliu Hossu, portrait of a duchess of Brabant, a Dacian target), made of natural silk (small ones, 180 x 33 cm) and cotton (large ones, XNUMX x XNUMX cm).