Chair

Western Pomerania is a region where many different types of seating furniture have been developed. Pomeranian cottages were furnished with long benches, stools with ornately carved backs and chairs with seats woven from torn tree roots, straw or wicker. Until very recently, such chair was still considered the representative pieces of equipment, reserved only for the owner of the house or important guests. In the culture of the fishing communities of Western Pomerania, the chairs had also an important social role – they were wedding furniture. The chair dedicated for the dowry would be lavishly decorated and inscribed with the date (year) of the marriage. Often the first and last name of the owner would be placed on it. The chair would also play a significant role during the wedding ceremony – the bride was seated on it during the rite of passage from the maiden to the married state, which was very meaningful in the folk beliefs. After the ceremony, the chair was taken to the couple’s home and became part of their joint property. The chairs were crafted in workshops by carpenters and usually decorated by their wives and daughters. They made elaborate, multi-coloured paintings “by hand” or with the use of stencils. The collection of the Department of Ethnography of the National Museum in Szczecin contains a chair from 1818 covered with gorgeous paintings. It has a frame-type structure and a seat made of straw with a wicker technique. The date on the chair and the woman's name, Cattrina Runge, indicate that it was a piece of furniture intended as a dowry. In the colourful decorations consisting of red hearts and rosettes, one can find symbolic meaning and wishes for happiness, fertility and vitality for the young couple. The solar signs, which appear to be “spinning”, were supposed to protect the couple and their home from evil forces. The ornament is completed with twirling flowering branches. According to the information recorded in the inventory book, the chair comes from the Gryfice poviat.

Agnieszka Słowińska