Two-door wardrobe withfloral motif

Wardrobes, just like other pieces of furniture intended for farmhouses, were manufactured in artisan workshops by qualified carpenters, who sold their creations at fairs and markets or made them on request. The entire production process usually took place in one workshop. The furniture was decorated most often by the wives and daughters of the craftsmen. They created beautiful paintings which featured characteristics of a given region. Western Pomerania was dominated by decorations in red, yellow, and white layered on an even coat of blue, green or brown background. Floral motifs were most common. Civilisational changes that begun in the second half of the 19th century resulted, among others, in the appearance of urban furniture in farmhouses, but at first, they coexisted with the rustic equipment. In the 1920s and 1930s, they virtually completely supplanted them. The two-door wardrobe on display, decorated with a floral motif, comes from the Kamień Pomorski area. It was made in the first half of the 19th century. There are some traces on its inside suggesting that at first it was used to store crockery, and later was transformed into a clothes wardrobe. During the restoration works it was also discovered that originally, it was given a faux wood finish, which was a decorating technique that allowed imitating the grain of expensive, walnut wood on a cheaper pine wood, by painting it with appropriate shades. The wardrobe is one of the items of the rich collection of painted furniture in the collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin. It was purchased by the museum in 1969.

Agnieszka Słowińska