Corner cabinet hanging

A corner cabinet, also called an angle cabinet, is a piece of furniture that became fashionable among the elite strata of Pomeranian society in Rococo. In the 19th century, such furniture was introduced to the lower classes of the Pomeranian society in standing or hanging versions, but it never reached sophisticated, richly decorated forms. Standing or hanging corner cabinets were found throughout Poland, also in its borderlands. Corner cabinets were often found in poorer homes. In this case, the walls were used as furniture walls, only the door was added, and shelves were placed inside. The presented cabinet, which comes from the wealthy region of Pyrzyce, is a hanging, full cabinet of box construction based on a triangular plan with truncated corners. The cornice is oiled, and the bottom is edged with profiled moulding. The door is panelled with a lock and a decorative lining. In the middle of the cupboard, there is a shelf. The panel is decorated at the corners with painted tulips and with a convex oval emblem with painted three tulips in the centre. The face and sidewall are decorated with open oblong fields with slightly rounded ends. The cabinet is painted in the characteristic dark blue of the Pyrzyce region, against which the warm colours of the decorative motifs in orange and green are well-reflected. Inhabitants of the Pyrzyce region decorated even such a trivial piece of furniture like a small hanging cupboard with the tulip motif, which their ancestors had brought with them and which had symbolised wealth and prosperity in the Netherlands since the 17th century.

Iwona Karwowska