Bed

A bed belongs to the resting furniture in every home; however, its presence was not obvious in the old country houses. It was not always present in the poorest people’s homes. Often there was only one bed in the house - for the hosts, while the children slept on-wall-mounted benches or on the so-called ‘zapiecek’ [top of the oven]. In the Pyrzyce region, which was settled in the 18th century by immigrants from the rich Netherlands and Friesland, a bed was typical furniture in wealthy homes. It was decoratively profiled, and colourfully painted with floral motifs usually depicting roses, tulips and grapevine. Dates, monograms and sentences referring to the idea of a good marriage were also frequent elements, as in the Pyrzyce region, the bed was often a wedding gift. The presented bed is a typical construction joined with wooden tenons. It consists of a headrest and the opposite panel into which the legs are recessed and two longitudinal boards. The high headrest, extremely ornately profiled and crowned with a crown as a frequent decoration of Pyrzyce beds, is the opposite of the much lower and straight ended opposite side. It is painted in the favourite way for the inhabitants of Pyrzyce, using contrasting colours, in this case, black and red. There is a large red emblem on the headrest with the inscription ‘Renoviert 1890 T.J.’ It was probably placed in a place of the original unrestored inscriptions, e.g., monograms. However, the inscription on the opposite wall, ‘ANNO 1787’, has been reconstructed. The lateral facing board is decorated with a symmetrically framed floral motif dominated by red, yellow and green. An additional colour element was the Pyrzyce bed linen sewn from linen cloth in a wide blue check. The beds were piled with feathers and pyramid-shaped pillows, the corners of which were decorated with alternating red and blue bows. In the Pyrzyce room, the bed was a visible colour scheme that dominated the entire interior.

Iwona Karwowska