Antique Farmhouse Cabinets
Each of our antique farmhouse cabinets and chests is unique, handcrafted using simple tools. Carved, painted, or plain: it all depends on your own preferences and the room itself whether a magnificent farmhouse cabinet or a simple farmhouse chest is the right choice. With its large front panel, it can be an eye-catching feature in the room or blend into an ensemble without losing its uniqueness. These are antique farmhouse cabinets and farmhouse chests from Austria.
The origin of the farmhouse cabinet
In the Middle Ages, the cabinet developed from two chests stacked on top of one another and from the door locks of wall niches evolving into an upright wooden storage piece of furniture.
In the 16th century, the term “Almer,” Latin for armarium, appeared. It is a storage cabinet. The oldest forms are narrow, have only one door, and stand on their supporting sides. Later Almers are larger, have one or two rows of drawers on the sides, and possibly a second door. The form of the Almer remained unchanged until the 19th century.
Wardrobes and linen cupboards became popular in the 17th century, replacing the clothing chests that had been common until then.
The farmhouse cabinet as a piece of furniture and wedding cupboard
Farmhouse cupboards gained great importance in the 18th century as the centerpiece of furniture. When a farmer’s daughter got married, her family gave her farmhouse furniture as a wedding gift, which remained in the possession of the farmer’s wife. The farmhouse cupboard as a wedding cupboard is a storage piece of furniture for precious bales of cloth, linen, and various mementos and treasures that need to be kept safe. The wedding gifts were brought in an open cart and displayed to the villagers. New farmhouse furniture was not always brought into the house at weddings. Existing farmhouse furniture was also repainted. The wedding furniture was placed in the bedroom or upper parlour or high parlour on the upper floor. This is where the representative farmhouse furniture stood.
The extent of the farmhouse furniture given as gifts and the level of craftsmanship indicated the wealth of the family. Farmers’ chests, farmers’ trunks, farmers’ chairs, beds, dressers, and cradles were inscribed with initials, the year, and decorations. The farmers’ cupboard with its large front panel became the central feature of the room.
Magnificent farmhouse furniture was not only found on wealthy farms, but also in parsonages and the homes of respected citizens.
The farmhouse cupboard from Austria
Different regions developed in different ways, and so did their lifestyles and living arrangements. External influences included the type of farm, the type of heating, transport links, topography, proximity to castles, monasteries, and cultural centers, religion, as well as circumstances such as how long the region had been spared from war and how successful peasant uprisings had been. All of this shaped people’s mentality, determined their material and intellectual advancement, and influenced their forms of expression.
In the smoke room house, which was common in Styria, Carinthia, and East Tyrol, there was no decorated farmhouse furniture for a long time due to smoke formation and soot deposits. Where the kitchen was separated from a smoke-free heated room, painted and carved farmhouse furniture became widespread early on.
With increasing decorative flair, typical small-scale styles of carved and painted farmhouse chests emerged. They are distinguished from one another by characteristic features, can be attributed to regions and workshops, but are not signed.
For example, Upper Austrian farmhouse chests can be attributed to the regions of St. Florian, Linz, Lambach, Hirschbach, Gunskirchen, Kronstorf, and Eferding based on certain stylistic features in their painting. In Tyrol, there are typical characteristics for different valleys, such as the Alpbachtal, Zillertal, and Sarntal. Certain motifs in the carved decoration also indicate the origin. Carved farmhouse chests from Tyrol can be clearly attributed to the Oberinntal or Gaadenertal, and the richly carved farmhouse furniture from Salzburg to the Pinzgau.
This gave rise to chest names. For example, the Apostel chest—a chest with 12 or 13 round arches—comes from Carinthia or Styria. The front of the Eferding slatted chest features small panels created by raised strips, has a V-shaped center panel with a key plate, is decorated with rosettes, swirls, and compass motifs, and has muted colors. The Linz rider’s chest or pandour chest has an engraving of riders or soldiers in the center panel. The Sideltruhe or Siedeltruhe is a chest that was also intended for sitting and has a swivel backrest.
Small chests are containers for money, documents, valuables such as jewelry, and personal treasures. Due to their valuable contents, these small-format chests are particularly decorated and locked. The fittings serve not only a protective but also a decorative function. Elaborately decorated small caskets were gifts of love.
Simple trunk chests were needed by people in itinerant and traveling professions such as carters, seasonal workers, traders, musicians, craftsmen, and servants to store their belongings.
The painted and carved farmhouse cabinet
The furniture of high culture served as a model. Expensive materials and elaborate inlay work were imitated using substitute techniques, resulting in the development of unique decorative techniques. A template was cut out of paper, sheet metal, or wood and used to apply the motifs, or sawn-out ornaments were applied to the farmhouse chest.
The 17th-century peasant cabinet is decorated in a limited color palette of two to three colors in a predominantly graphic, ornamental style that imitated the Renaissance. Heraldic motifs were popular. The peasant cabinet was decorated using carving techniques such as scratching, notch cutting, and punching. Paintings were simulated with glued woodcut sheets or engravings. The peasant chest of this period has a strongly architectural structure.
During the heyday of peasant furniture, from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, peasant cabinets became brighter and more colorful and were painted with opaque colors. Floral and figurative motifs, landscapes, animals, religious symbols, initials, dates, and historical events adorned the peasant chest. The four panels of a two-door peasant cabinet lent themselves to the depiction of the four seasons, the four evangelists, the four continents, and the four cardinal virtues.
Small-scale design languages emerged, each drawing on the same color palette and choice of motifs and matching the overall picture, so that the farmhouse cabinets could be traced back to their place of origin, valley, or workshop. Such places can be found in Upper Austria, Tyrol, and the Salzkammergut, where stylistic conventions undoubtedly developed.
The only carpenter-painter who signed his work was Georg Praitwieser (Praitwiser, Preitwieser, Breitwieser), 1768–1849, also known as “Tischler in Moos” (Carpenter in Moos) from Offenhausen (Upper Austria), who included his name in the painted banners on the farmer’s cupboard.
Farmers’ chests from Catholic regions show different depictions than farmers’ cupboards from Protestant regions. In Catholic areas, we find depictions of saints, pilgrimage Madonnas, the Coronation of Mary, etc., while Protestant clients chose scenes from the Bible or biblical sayings. Worth mentioning are the bright green farmers’ cupboards from the Zillertal valley, which originate from a Protestant environment.
After 1800, the painting of farmhouse cabinets became more folk-like. Naturalistic depictions in floral and figurative styles and Biedermeier genre painting prevailed, farmhouse cabinets were no longer painted so colorfully, and surface imitations made a comeback.
The love of pomp and splendor in Tyrol and Pinzgau is evident in the rich carved decorations. The carved farmhouse cabinets had their small-scale similarities in construction and choice of decorative motifs. The carvings are extremely vivid and testify to a high level of craftsmanship.
The farmer’s chest as a wedding chest is decorated with names, dates, symbols of love and fidelity, and floral motifs. Later dates are common when an existing farmer’s chest was used as a bride price. The furniture remains in the possession of the farmer’s wife. The prosperity of the family of origin can be gauged by the extent of the decoration. The finished farmhouse furniture generally remained in the immediate region, with greater dispersion achieved through migrating dowries.
While farmhouse chests and farmhouse cupboards were still of equal status in the 18th century, in the 19th century the farmhouse chest increasingly ceded its high status to the farmhouse cupboard. The farmer’s chest took on the function of storage furniture for clothing, linen, lace, crockery, and valuables. The farmer’s chest retained its representative function.
The color palette of painted farmhouse furniture became much more limited in the mid-19th century, aiming to imitate bourgeois furniture.
The construction of the farmhouse cabinet
The construction influences the decoration of the farmhouse cabinet. If the cabinet door consists of a single board, as in the Almer, it is decorated at most with strips attached to the front. These strips, which serve as a frame, cornice, and base, give the farmhouse cabinet its structure. The door is divided into sections by the combination of frame and panel. The older and simpler the farmhouse cabinet, the more clearly the construction stands out.
The farmhouse cabinet as a stollen cabinet, side stollen cabinet, or standing side cabinet stands on three supporting sides. The side stollen are connected to the front wall with wooden nails. If the farmhouse cabinet is a plinth cabinet, it can be lifted off its base, like a farmhouse chest. The farmhouse cabinet can also stand on turned discs or feet. These cabinet bodies are galvanized and inserted into a base. The upper edge of the farmhouse cabinet is formed by the cornice or crown. The construction of a farmhouse cabinet provides information about its age.