DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23631#0082
top. The central part sometimes contained pigeon-holes for holding letters and various other articles.
Cylindrical desks in Louis XVI style, popular in the Empire period, which opened when the surface
used for writing was pulled out, as well as little escritoires used by ladies known as bonheur-du-jour,
still remained in fashion. Biedermaier cupboards, with single or double doors, were simple in shape at
first and later with undulated panels and the sides flanked with columns, semi-columns or pilasters.
Bookcases were either fully glazed or glazed only halfway down, with the glass panes set in arched Gothic
frames. There were also tallboys which served to keep bed sheets and linen and commodes used as
bedside tables. Small two-part sideboards were modelled on French renaissance sideboards known as
a deux corps. Dressing-tables were usually kidney-shaped, with an adjustable mirror. Hanging mirrors,
usually rectangular in shape, had frames decorated in bull's eyes.
Many furniture manufactories, still organized on old guild principles, were opened during the 19th
century in all major towns, above all in Warsaw and Cracow. Cracow furniture represented a peculiar
version of the Biedermeier style: the seat flaring out beyond the leg line, massive legs and arm rests
in sofas and bulging lines in commode drawers. Unfortunately it was extremely rare for those pieces of
furniture to carry their makers' signature and the year of their manufacture. The names of Cracow furniture
makers which figure in guild registers for the period between 1830 and i860 are typically Polish:
Jordan, Hanowicz, Sekowski, Satalecki, Pi^tkiewicz, but foreign carpenters and cabinetmakers were also
noted, mainly from Hamburg, Konigsberg, Szczecin, Bavaria, Saxony and the Rhineland. Polish journeymen
usually completed their apprenticeship in Silesia, Austria and Germany. Biedermeier furniture was made
in provincial towns, in Kolbuszowa for example.
The style named after Louis-Philippe, the Citizen King of France, who ruled for 18 years with the
support of the bourgeoisie, reached Poland in the 1840s. This style made use of historical motifs, mainly
Gothic, Renaissance and Rococo but also Pompeian, Byzantine and Turkish and adapted them to the
requirements of new, mostly mechanical, methods of production and bourgeois tastes. In Poland it
developed simultaneously with the Biedermeier, though in Cracow it became fashionable only after the
great fire of the city in 1850.
The Polish version of Louis-Philippe furniture was closest to the rococo style, though tending to be
more massive, with preference for comfort over elegance. It was veneered in mahogany, palisander, and walnut,
with console-tables and bedside tables given black or white marble tops. Chairs, armchairs, sofas and chaise-
longues were upholstered in dark reds, dark greens or dark blues with braidings. The great variety of
stuffed and upholstered chairs, armchairs and sofas included tub chairs, 'Voltaires' with high back rests and
wing chairs, 'medallion' chairs with oval backs, poufs, broad comfortable sofas and en bateau beds. To this
should be added matching commodes with drawers and cupboards, ornate wardrobes and^glazed cabinets.
The Warsaw variety of this style was known as Simmler furniture, from the name of furniture makers.
Soon this type of furniture became mass produced and lost all artistic merit. The decline in the artistic
quality of furniture in southern Poland, in the Austrian partition zone, was triggered off by the law of
1859, which abolished the old traditional guild organization and merely required craftsmen to register
their business and pay appropriate fees and taxes. Of the great number of carpenters and cabinetmakers
in that period only a few won the reputation of masters in their craft. These were Jozef Szpilarewicz and
the brothers Heurich in Cracow, Tenerowicz, Bentkowski, Harasimowicz and Beltowski who formed
a sort of cooperative business in Lvov in circa 1870, Szeliga and Majerski in Przemysl, and Mohr in
Kalisz.
In the mid-19th century, historical styles popular in the West, primarily in France and Germany,
appeared in Poland. The Second Rococo, which was a continuation of the Louis-Philippe style, was
a close imitation of the original rococo style. The chairs, sofas, side-tables and escritoires, etageres, with
a charm which just missed being authentic, were made of solid unveneered wood, with carved, lacquered
and gilded ornaments, upholstered in heavy silk materials, occasionally embroidered, usually in
cafe-au-lait shades. The Neo-Renaissance style, modelled principally on German and Netherlands furniture,
won greater popularity. The Renaissance element here was to be found exclusively in various ornamental
motifs, mostly carved, such as garlands of fruit, satyrs' masks, mythological monsters and medallions
with heads of emperors. Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque furniture was also made, either strictly according
to authentic original models, or as pasticcio compositions. Such furniture, whether handmade or factory
made, demonstrated great attentiveness in the choice of materials and quality of workmanship. Members
of the upper middle class felt really at home only in rich interiors overloaded with stylish furniture, dra-
Cylindrical desks in Louis XVI style, popular in the Empire period, which opened when the surface
used for writing was pulled out, as well as little escritoires used by ladies known as bonheur-du-jour,
still remained in fashion. Biedermaier cupboards, with single or double doors, were simple in shape at
first and later with undulated panels and the sides flanked with columns, semi-columns or pilasters.
Bookcases were either fully glazed or glazed only halfway down, with the glass panes set in arched Gothic
frames. There were also tallboys which served to keep bed sheets and linen and commodes used as
bedside tables. Small two-part sideboards were modelled on French renaissance sideboards known as
a deux corps. Dressing-tables were usually kidney-shaped, with an adjustable mirror. Hanging mirrors,
usually rectangular in shape, had frames decorated in bull's eyes.
Many furniture manufactories, still organized on old guild principles, were opened during the 19th
century in all major towns, above all in Warsaw and Cracow. Cracow furniture represented a peculiar
version of the Biedermeier style: the seat flaring out beyond the leg line, massive legs and arm rests
in sofas and bulging lines in commode drawers. Unfortunately it was extremely rare for those pieces of
furniture to carry their makers' signature and the year of their manufacture. The names of Cracow furniture
makers which figure in guild registers for the period between 1830 and i860 are typically Polish:
Jordan, Hanowicz, Sekowski, Satalecki, Pi^tkiewicz, but foreign carpenters and cabinetmakers were also
noted, mainly from Hamburg, Konigsberg, Szczecin, Bavaria, Saxony and the Rhineland. Polish journeymen
usually completed their apprenticeship in Silesia, Austria and Germany. Biedermeier furniture was made
in provincial towns, in Kolbuszowa for example.
The style named after Louis-Philippe, the Citizen King of France, who ruled for 18 years with the
support of the bourgeoisie, reached Poland in the 1840s. This style made use of historical motifs, mainly
Gothic, Renaissance and Rococo but also Pompeian, Byzantine and Turkish and adapted them to the
requirements of new, mostly mechanical, methods of production and bourgeois tastes. In Poland it
developed simultaneously with the Biedermeier, though in Cracow it became fashionable only after the
great fire of the city in 1850.
The Polish version of Louis-Philippe furniture was closest to the rococo style, though tending to be
more massive, with preference for comfort over elegance. It was veneered in mahogany, palisander, and walnut,
with console-tables and bedside tables given black or white marble tops. Chairs, armchairs, sofas and chaise-
longues were upholstered in dark reds, dark greens or dark blues with braidings. The great variety of
stuffed and upholstered chairs, armchairs and sofas included tub chairs, 'Voltaires' with high back rests and
wing chairs, 'medallion' chairs with oval backs, poufs, broad comfortable sofas and en bateau beds. To this
should be added matching commodes with drawers and cupboards, ornate wardrobes and^glazed cabinets.
The Warsaw variety of this style was known as Simmler furniture, from the name of furniture makers.
Soon this type of furniture became mass produced and lost all artistic merit. The decline in the artistic
quality of furniture in southern Poland, in the Austrian partition zone, was triggered off by the law of
1859, which abolished the old traditional guild organization and merely required craftsmen to register
their business and pay appropriate fees and taxes. Of the great number of carpenters and cabinetmakers
in that period only a few won the reputation of masters in their craft. These were Jozef Szpilarewicz and
the brothers Heurich in Cracow, Tenerowicz, Bentkowski, Harasimowicz and Beltowski who formed
a sort of cooperative business in Lvov in circa 1870, Szeliga and Majerski in Przemysl, and Mohr in
Kalisz.
In the mid-19th century, historical styles popular in the West, primarily in France and Germany,
appeared in Poland. The Second Rococo, which was a continuation of the Louis-Philippe style, was
a close imitation of the original rococo style. The chairs, sofas, side-tables and escritoires, etageres, with
a charm which just missed being authentic, were made of solid unveneered wood, with carved, lacquered
and gilded ornaments, upholstered in heavy silk materials, occasionally embroidered, usually in
cafe-au-lait shades. The Neo-Renaissance style, modelled principally on German and Netherlands furniture,
won greater popularity. The Renaissance element here was to be found exclusively in various ornamental
motifs, mostly carved, such as garlands of fruit, satyrs' masks, mythological monsters and medallions
with heads of emperors. Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque furniture was also made, either strictly according
to authentic original models, or as pasticcio compositions. Such furniture, whether handmade or factory
made, demonstrated great attentiveness in the choice of materials and quality of workmanship. Members
of the upper middle class felt really at home only in rich interiors overloaded with stylish furniture, dra-